Tag: identify

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Politics

Courtroom Paperwork Establish Sailor Charged With Arson in Fireplace That Destroyed Ship

Court Documents Identify Sailor Charged With Arson in Fire That Destroyed Ship

WASHINGTON — Investigators have identified the Navy sailor accused of starting a fire that engulfed the warship Bonhomme Richard and burned for days at a Navy base in San Diego last year.

The sailor, Ryan Sawyer Mays, 20, joined the service in May 2019 and holds the rank of seaman apprentice, according to Navy records. The Navy formally charged Seaman Mays with aggravated arson and hazarding a vessel last month but declined to provide additional details until federal search warrants were unsealed by a federal court in San Diego on Tuesday.

Documents filed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service describe a sailor who “hated” the Navy after being sent to a warship following a brief stint as a SEAL trainee in late 2019.

Seaman Mays quit the difficult six-month initial SEAL training course in Coronado, Calif., after just five days, according to the filing.

The fire, one of the worst to engulf an American warship outside combat, rendered the ship inoperative while it was pierside at the base. More than 400 sailors from 16 nearby ships fought the blaze, which reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees and took four days to extinguish.

A lawyer representing Seaman Mays said his client had “maintained his innocence throughout this entire ordeal.”

“He’s presumed innocent, and we look forward for the opportunity to review the evidence and presenting a case on his behalf,” the lawyer, Gary S. Barthel, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Seaman Mays, whose identity was reported earlier by The Daily Beast, was confined in a Navy brig from late August to approximately mid-October 2020 and then released, according to Mr. Barthel. It is unclear why the Navy freed Seaman Mays months before he was formally charged.

After his release from the brig, Seaman Mays reported to the staff of Amphibious Squadron 5 in San Diego, where he is currently assigned.

“He’s expected to perform his duties as he would any other day of the week as any other sailor would,” Mr. Barthel said of his client. “There are no restrictions on his movement.”

Mr. Barthel said his client voluntarily quit the SEAL program, and hopes to re-enter training in the future.

“I think he’d like to go back if given the opportunity, if he meets all the other qualifications,” Mr. Barthel said.

A spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, which oversees SEAL training, could not immediately confirm the details described by N.C.I.S.

Navy records show that Seaman Mays left the Naval Special Warfare training center on March 6, 2020, and reported to the Bonhomme Richard on March 23.

The N.C.I.S. report said that the Bonhomme Richard’s command master chief — the ship’s senior-most enlisted sailor and a top adviser to the commanding officer — described Seaman Mays as “a person who showed disdain towards authority and the U.S. Navy.” The report further noted that “the morale and behavior of sailors who had aspired to become a SEAL, and then find themselves serving in a more traditional role on a Navy ship, are frequently very challenging.”

Seaman Mays was assigned to the Bonhomme Richard’s Deck Division, which is responsible for maintaining the physical condition of the ship — a job often involving manual labor such as removing rust and painting.

The warship was undergoing an extended maintenance period and was moored when the blaze broke out on a Sunday morning, when fewer than 200 sailors were aboard. The unsealed documents said that Seaman Mays was on duty aboard the ship that day.

Navy officials deemed the 800-foot-long amphibious warship a total loss after repair estimates rose to more than $3 billion. The ship was decommissioned on April 14, and towed through the Panama Canal. It will be cut into scrap metal in Texas.

According to the N.C.I.S., a witness identified Seaman Mays as the only person who entered a vehicle storage area deep within the ship the morning of the fire, shortly before smoke was seen rising from that compartment. The report said that he may have left the storage area through an escape trunk and returned to his berthing area. A second sailor recalled Seaman Mays coming into the berthing area to “tell everyone to get off the ship because the ship was on fire.”

Seaman Mays filled out a questionnaire for investigators eight days after the fire broke out, and was the only member of the crew aboard the ship on July 12, 2020, who reported smelling a “burning fuel/rubbery smell” from the fire, the documents said. Investigators said the terminology Seaman Mays used to describe the smell of the fire was “consistent with items and materials” that special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found in the vehicle storage compartment after the fire was extinguished.

Seaman Mays faces a preliminary hearing known as an Article 32 investigation, the results of which will either recommend he be sent to a court-martial or have the charges dismissed. The final decision on whether Seaman Mays will face trial will be made by the commander of the Navy’s Third Fleet, Vice Adm. Steve Koehler.

Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a spokesman for Third Fleet, confirmed that “Seaman Apprentice Ryan Sawyer Mays is the sailor who was charged July 29,” and said, “I have nothing further to add.”

Seamus Hughes contributed research.

Categories
Health

Researchers establish 5 new instances of variant in California

Researchers identify five new cases of variant in California

A healthcare worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) inserts a Covid-19 test tube into a box at a drive-through test location at the Alemany Farmers Market in San Francisco, California on November 19, 2020.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Stanford University researchers have identified five new cases of a “double mutant” strain of Covid-19 recently discovered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Doctors suggest it may be more contagious than previous strains and may be resistant to existing vaccines.

The new variant is originally from India, where after months of declining cases in Maharashtra state, home of Mumbai, cases have increased by 55%.

It contains two key mutations that scientists call E484Q and L452R that have been found in other variants separately but not together in a single strain, according to Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, Medical Director of the Stanford Clinical Virology Laboratory, who discovered the new variant in the United States

“There’s a decent amount of information on how these mutations behave in viruses themselves, but not in combination,” Pinsky said in an interview.

In other variants, the L452R mutation has been shown to make the virus more transmissible. There is also evidence that antibodies fail to recognize this mutation, which has been found in other strains to reduce vaccine effectiveness.

The E484Q mutation has also been shown to be less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies that help fight the coronavirus. It’s too early to tell if the mutation makes the virus more contagious.

“But you would expect that when combined with L452R, it would increase transmission and decrease neutralization of antibodies,” Pinsky said.

If the mutation makes the virus more resistant to antibodies, Pinsky said it could reduce the effectiveness of both vaccines and antibody treatments, which have become a crucial tool for doctors in fighting Covid-19.

“I suspect that existing vaccines are a little less effective at preventing infection with this new variant,” he said, “but all vaccines are extremely effective at preventing hospitalizations and death.”

Treatment with Eli Lilly’s Bamlanivimab antibodies has been shown to be less effective in the treatment of strains containing the E484Q or L452R mutations. US health officials stopped distributing this antibody treatment last month, saying it was not as effective against the new variants.

The double mutant variant “has known mutations in the scariest spot where a mutation is – the receptor binding domain where the virus attaches to cells in our bodies to enter,” said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California San Francisco. “The mutations are either identical or eerily similar to mutations in variants that we already know are scientifically proven to be more transmissible and / or evade vaccines. So many believe this Indian variant will have these superpowers too.”

Dr. Tom Kenyon, chief health officer at Project HOPE and former director of global health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said scientists are finding more mutations, at least in part, because the new CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has instructed the agency to increase surveillance. “The more we look for these, the more we will find them,” he said.

“There’s something about the world that scares people and makes it sound like it’s doubly bad,” Kenyon said in an interview. “Any mutation that affects transmissibility or virus replication would be dangerous.”

There is a chance the new variant will stay in the Bay Area, unlike variant B.1.1.7 from the UK, which has become the predominant variety almost everywhere, Chin-Hong said.

“If the British variant goes into a boxing ring with the Indian variant, the British variant will likely emerge victorious. But only time will tell,” said Chin-Hong.

The longer it takes to vaccinate the world, the more chance the virus has of mutating into even worse strains, scientists say. Walensky has warned of “impending doom” in the US as states lift Covid-19 restrictions. She has urged people to get vaccinated and continue to follow public health precautions, including wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

“The variants that scare me the most are the ones that haven’t been invented yet. The more the virus replicates, the more we will see these escape mutants,” said Chin-Hong. “We need global vaccination justice and continued battles against pandemic fatigue.”

California will lift most of its Covid restrictions by June 15, but still plans to maintain a mask mandate.

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Business

Ohio researchers determine two variants probably originating within the U.S.

Ohio researchers identify two variants likely originating in the U.S.

Healthcare workers conduct free Covid-19 tests for people in their cars in the parking lot of the Columbus West Family Health and Wellness Center in Columbus, Ohio on November 19, 2020.

Stephen Zenner | AFP | Getty Images

Researchers in Ohio said Wednesday that they discovered two new variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the United States – one of which quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio over a period of three weeks in late December and January.

Like the strain first detected in the UK, the US mutations appear to make Covid-19 more contagious, but they don’t appear to affect the vaccine’s effectiveness, the researchers said.

Ohio State University researchers have not yet released their full results, but they say an unverified study is in the pipeline. Jason McDonald, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNBC that the agency is reviewing the new research.

One of the new strains, found in just one patient in Ohio, contains a mutation identical to the now dominant variant in the UK. Researchers concluded that it “likely appeared in a strain of the virus that is already present in the US”. However, the “Columbus strain,” which researchers said in a press release had become dominant in the city, includes “three other gene mutations not previously seen together in SARS-CoV2.”

“This new strain of Columbus shares the same genetic backbone as previous cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” said Dr. Dan Jones, Ohio state vice chairman of the molecular pathology division, in a statement. “We know that shift didn’t come from the UK or South African branches of the virus.”

The mutation of the dominant new strain in Columbus – COH.20G / 501Y – “may appear independently in several parts of the world in recent months,” the researchers said.

Peter Mohler, chief scientist at Wexner Medical Center in Ohio, United States and co-author of the upcoming study, said there was no data to suggest the new strain would affect vaccine effectiveness.

“It is important that we do not overreact to this new variant until we receive additional data,” he said in a statement. “We need to understand the effects of mutations on the transmission of the virus, the prevalence of the strain in the population, and the effects on human health.

The Ohio researchers will hold a press conference about their discovery at 11 p.m. ET.

This is the latest news. You can find updates here.

Categories
Health

Texas, Connecticut well being officers determine states’ first instances of latest Covid pressure present in UK

Texas, Connecticut health officials identify states' first cases of new Covid strain found in UK

Medical staff examine a patient with coronavirus in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas on November 16, 2020.

Go Nakamura | Getty Images

Public health officials in Texas announced Thursday that they had identified the state’s first case for a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus that was originally discovered in the United Kingdom.

The patient, a man between 30 and 40 years of age with no travel history, was discovered in Harris County, home of Houston, the county health department said in a statement. The man was isolated and in stable condition, and local infectious disease experts are following all of his contacts to find and monitor other people he may have exposed to the virus.

It’s likely the variant is already floating around in Texas as the man had no history, said Dr. John Hellerstedt, the Texas Department of Health commissioner, in a statement. He added that genetic variations in viruses “are the norm,” and it’s not surprising that the variant was discovered in Texas, given how quickly it spreads.

“This should get us all to double our commitment to the infection prevention methods we know: masks when you are around people you don’t live with, social distancing, and personal and environmental hygiene,” Hellerstedt said.

Shortly after Texas officials announced their first case, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said in a tweet that his state had identified two Covid-19 cases with the new variant B.1.1.7 in people aged 15-25 . Both patients had an out-of-state travel history – one to Ireland and the other to New York, Lamont said.

“As we said last week, given the speed of this new strain of virus and its identification in several states across the country, we assumed it was already in our state and that information confirms that fact this morning,” the governor said in a tweet .

The strain, which has also been found in California, Georgia, New York, Florida, and Colorado, is believed to be communicable but doesn’t appear to make people sicker or increase the risk of death from Covid-19, experts have said. Earlier Thursday, Pennsylvania health officials said they had identified their state’s first case with the new variant.

Harris County judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s most elected official, said in a tweet Thursday that the discovery of the variant in the region was “worrying” given its already rapid spread.

As of Thursday, the district was still in its most serious threat level, “Level 1”. This means that testing and contact tracing efforts are strained and outbreaks are “present or worsening” according to the county’s website.

When the county is at this level, residents are advised to only leave their homes for essential purposes and to minimize contact with other people whenever possible.

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that current vaccines should work against the new variant, although additional hospitalizations could occur if allowed to spread uncontrollably. Federal health officials are also on the lookout for a second separate new strain, first identified in South Africa.

The CDC does not yet know how widespread the new variant B.1.1.7 is in the USA. The agency now requires all passengers traveling from the UK to the US to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test before boarding, which was carried out no later than three days before their departure.

– CNBC’s Will Feuer contributed to this report.