The captain of a nuclear-powered submarine is under investigation after being filmed having a “rave-themed barbecue” in a Plymouth dockyard.
Cmdr John Lewis, the captain of HMS Trenchant, a nuclear-powered attack submarine based at Devonport naval base, has been sent home on leave. He could face dismissal from his role over the incident earlier this month.
Footage of the crew showed sailors dancing and laughing, and a source told the BBC some were drinking alcohol.
The submarine had been on patrol before having to return to Devonport for repairs. The crew were expected to stay with the submarine in isolation while the repairs were completed.
The Royal Navy has placed Lewis under “administrative investigation” over concerns about his judgment.
It is alleged that Lewis ignored instructions from his superiors not to approve an impromptu social event when his boat arrived at the naval base.
The crew had reportedly been on a mission for several weeks but instead of returning home they were told to remain in quarantine.
Footage of the party was first shared on a blog on Forces Compare, an independent search engine to compare insurance quotes. It was subsequently shared among military personnel on other social media sites, including WhatsApp and Facebook.
Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated – albeit more mildly – in subsequent flu pandemics.
How and why multiple-wave outbreaks occur, and how subsequent waves of infection can be prevented, has become a staple of epidemiological modelling studies and pandemic preparation, which have looked at everything from social behaviour and health policy to vaccination and the buildup of community immunity, also known as herd immunity.
Is there evidence of coronavirus coming back elsewhere?
This is being watched very carefully. Without a vaccine, and with no widespread immunity to the new disease, one alarm is being sounded by the experience of Singapore, which has seen a sudden resurgence in infections despite being lauded for its early handling of the outbreak.
Although Singapore instituted a strong contact tracing system for its general population, the disease re-emerged in cramped dormitory accommodation used by thousands of foreign workers with inadequate hygiene facilities and shared canteens.
Singapore’s experience, although very specific, has demonstrated the ability of the disease to come back strongly in places where people are in close proximity and its ability to exploit any weakness in public health regimes set up to counter it.
What are experts worried about?
Conventional wisdom among scientists suggests second waves of resistant infections occur after the capacity for treatment and isolation becomes exhausted. In this case the concern is that the social and political consensus supporting lockdowns is being overtaken by public frustration and the urgent need to reopen economies.
The threat declines when susceptibility of the population to the disease falls below a certain threshold or when widespread vaccination becomes available.
In general terms the ratio of susceptible and immune individuals in a population at the end of one wave determines the potential magnitude of a subsequent wave. The worry right now is that with a vaccine still months away, and the real rate of infection only being guessed at, populations worldwide remain highly vulnerable to both resurgence and subsequent waves.
A source quoted in the the Times described the party as a “rave in the dockyard” and went on to defend the event.
The former naval officer said: “This really comes down to the nature of the order to not do it. If it was ‘you will not’ then that’s one thing. If it was more of a ‘do you think this is a good idea?’ then that’s another. But he’s been in a cramped submarine, just off patrol and they can’t go home. I know where most sympathy is going to lie.”
A Royal Navy spokesman said: “An investigation is under way. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”
