Trump's Unbelievable Stocked-To-The-Brim Medical Ship Not Offering Much 'Comfort', As The 1,000-Bed Ship Has Only 20 Patients; Overrun NYC Hospitals Are Infuriated And Exasperated

"If I'm blunt about it, it's a joke. Everyone can say, 'Thank you for putting up these wonderful places and opening up these cavernous halls.' But we're in a crisis here, we're in a battlefield. ... It's pretty ridiculous. If you're not going to help us with the people we need help with, what's the purpose?"

Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, April 2, 2020:

Such were the expectations for the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort that when it chugged into New York Harbor this week, throngs of people, momentarily forgetting the strictures of social distancing, crammed together along Manhattan's west side to catch a glimpse.

On Thursday, though, the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating executives at local hospitals. The ship's 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle.

Only 20 patients had been transferred to the ship, officials said, even as New York hospitals struggled to find space for the thousands infected with the coronavirus. Another Navy hospital ship, the U.S.N.S. Mercy, docked in Los Angeles, has had a total of 15 patients, officials said.

"If I'm blunt about it, it's a joke," said Michael Dowling, the head of Northwell Health, New York's largest hospital system. "Everyone can say, 'Thank you for putting up these wonderful places and opening up these cavernous halls.' But we're in a crisis here, we're in a battlefield."

Donald Trump has spent the past two weeks hyping the two ships. He first mentioned them on March 18:

We're sending, upon request, the two hospital ships; they're being prepared right now. They're massive ships. They're the big white ships with the red cross on the sides. One is called the Mercy and the other is called the Comfort. And they are in tip-top shape. They soon will be. They're getting ready to come up to New York. ... [T]hose two ships are being prepared to go, and they can be launched over the next week or so, depending on need.

March 22:

And one other thing: the ships. So we have the Mercy, and that's in — it's going to California, as you know. That's in — on the West Coast now. And you have a sister ship that's essentially a twin. They're incredible. I mean, they're incredible ships. I've seen it. I've seen one of them, and they are unbelievable — what they can do and the capacity. Many operating rooms. You know, they're wartime ships. They're meant for war. Many, many operating rooms. Stainless steel. These rooms are as good as there is anywhere in the nation, actually. ... And we are going to be bringing that ship — that's called the Comfort. So you have the Mercy and the Comfort. The Comfort is on the East Coast. And that ship will be coming over the next three weeks — three or four weeks. It's being — it was in the middle of maintenance, and we are moving the maintenance very, very quickly. And we're also supplying the ship simultaneously. It's actually big supplies going into those ships — big. And that ship will be coming up here over the next few weeks, and we'll probably be putting it in New York Harbor. And we're making arrangements for that, also, as to where it's going to be docked. So you have the Mercy and you have the Comfort. They'll be coming up. The Mercy will start very — very quickly. It'll be arriving in Los Angeles pretty soon.

March 26:

I can now announce something that I think is incredible, what they've done in the Navy, because the incredible naval hospital ship the USNS Comfort — which is incredible, actually, when you see it inside — will be underway to New York City on Saturday. So it's going to be leaving on Saturday, rather than three weeks from now. They did the maintenance quickly, and it was going to be there for quite a while longer — another three or four weeks. And it should be arriving ... the ship will be arriving in New York Harbor on Monday. I think I'm going to go out and I'll kiss it goodbye. I'll go — I'll go to — it's in Virginia, as you know. And I will go and we'll be waving together because I suspect the media will be following. ... It's a great ship. It's a great vessel, is right. ... After being fully loaded with medical supplies, it's going to be — it's loaded up to the top. And it's over at the Norfolk Naval Base; that's where it departs. It is expected then to — I mean, we're saving about three to four weeks by the incredible work done by the Navy. And I actually look forward to Saturday to see it go. The ship will arrive, and I believe it's going to get a little bit of a ceremony. There's something very beautiful about it. It's an incredible piece of work. Going to be landing at Pier 90 in Manhattan to provide hospital surge capacity for the New York metropolitan area. So it's a surge capacity. They may use it for this or they may have other people coming in from hospitals, unrelated to the virus, and then they'll use those hospitals on land. They'll use those hospitals for the virus. But we'll see how they do it. They could do it either way — one way or the other, whichever one is best. But it could be — because it's set up so well for a regular hospital, that they may take people out of hospitals and then use those rooms for the virus.

On March 28, Trump went to "kiss it goodbye":

I'm deeply honored to be at Naval Station Norfolk — the largest naval base anywhere in the world, and the home to the most powerful fleet that has ever sailed the seas. I just passed some of the most beautiful and, frankly, the most highly lethal ships that I have ever seen in my life, and there are a lot of them. And they're in better shape now than they have been for many, many decades, with what we're doing. ... As we gather today, our country is at war with an invisible enemy. ... In a few moments, the crew of the Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort — which is really something — will embark for New York City ... This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of New York — a place I know very well, a place I love. ...

After being rushed out of maintenance with historic speed — it was supposed to be here for four weeks, and they did it in four days — the Comfort will arrive at Pier 90 in Manhattan on Monday, three weeks ahead of schedule. Its crew will begin treating patients on Tuesday. ... [T]hey need the help. The skilled sailors and civilian mariners aboard this ship ... Their mission will be to care for New Yorkers who do not have the virus but who require urgent care. In other words, they'll be using this — people will be coming out of hospitals who don't have the virus, and they'll be on the ship where they have great operating rooms and great facilities. And the places inbound, on land, will be where people that have the virus will be. So the people with the virus will not be on ship. The ship will be used for people having operations and other things other than that. By serving these emergency patients away from the hospitals, beds will be opened up all over the city for those who are infected. This ship can handle a lot of people, so it will open capacity all over the city. And it will be ready to address any life-threatening medical emergency. It is stocked. It's stocked to the brim with equipment and medicines and everything you can think of. Importantly, by treating non-infected patients remotely on the ship, it will help to halt, very strongly, the transmission of the virus. ... As the USNS Comfort gets underway, it is fully loaded with 12 operating rooms — and they are fully equipped — 1,000 hospital beds, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, digital radiology, a CAT scan, two oxygen-producing plants, and a helicopter deck, which will be used very actively.

March 29:

Yesterday, I visited Naval Station Norfolk to see off the USNS Comfort, which will arrive in New York on Monday. It's very exciting. ... It's stocked with equipment and goods and all sorts of — anything medical, they've got. And, as you know, they're not going to be using that for COVID. They're going to be using that for other people so that room is made for COVID. So we're not going to have COVID patients — COVID-19 patients. We're going to have people that will unoccupy hospitals on land, and then those hospitals are going to be filled up with COVID-19 patients. ... As you know, the USNS Mercy is now in Los Angeles, and the governor has been very terrific to us. Governor Gavin Newsom, he's been very nice. ... Very important. But the Mercy arrived, and the Comfort will be arriving on Monday. And it will be hopefully greeted with great fanfare, because it's three weeks ahead of schedule.

A second event on March 29:

Yesterday, I visited Naval Station Norfolk as the USNS Comfort departed from New York three weeks ahead of schedule, fully loaded with 12 operating rooms, 1,000 hospital beds, and hundreds of the best doctors, nurses, and medical professionals anywhere in the United States Navy — anywhere, frankly, in the United States. It was an incredible thing to see. Mostly you saw that on television as it was leaving. It left literally three weeks early. It was under maintenance, and they got the maintenance done very quickly. ... Look, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, he's been — he's been terrific. We sent him a boat way ahead of schedule — the ship — way ahead of schedule — a hospital ship, the Mercy, with 1,000 beds, operating rooms. And it's — it's been in L.A. for three days already. So I think they're really happy.

March 30:

The U.S. Navy ship Comfort also arrived today, equipped with 12 operating rooms and 1,000 hospital beds. ... Now, the circumstances are so terrible because of what's going on, but I think they're very impressed by the federal government. I watched that beautiful ship floating in today into — you know, weeks ahead of schedule; almost four weeks ahead of schedule — into New York Harbor. The Comfort. And I watched the Mercy floating into Los Angeles a week ago — almost a week ago. And they are stocked. They are really ready to go. They are stocked with both talent and tremendous amounts of equipment. And the Navy and everybody else involved — they got it ready so fast. It's just incredible what they can do. They've geared up. That's why, I mean, I am so impressed by the people involved. Mike and I were talking about it before: the level of genius to put it all together so quickly. This wasn't — a month ago, nobody ever heard of this. Nobody had any idea. The Mercy was being maintained. It was in maintenance for a month. And when they heard we needed it — and I was surprised — they said, "Sir, we're ready to go." I said, "What do you mean? You're not going to be ready for three weeks." "No, sir, we're all ready to go." It was incredible. So — and we've had many instances like this.

(Someone said on Twitter that one of Trump's common "tells", when he's making shit up, is that someone referred to him as "Sir". Like in his "the-military-ran-out-of-bullets" tall tale.)

Continuing from the Times:

The Comfort was sent to New York to relieve pressure on city hospitals by treating people with ailments other than Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

President Trump [said the ship] ... would play a "critical role." ... But the reality has been different. A tangle of military protocols and bureaucratic hurdles has prevented the Comfort from accepting many patients at all.

On top of its strict rules preventing people infected with the virus from coming on board, the Navy is also refusing to treat a host of other conditions. Guidelines disseminated to hospitals included a list of 49 medical conditions that would exclude a patient from admittance to the ship. ...

Hospital leaders said they were exasperated by the delays. ...

Across the city, hospitals are overrun. Patients have died in hallways before they could even be hooked up to one of the few available ventilators in New York. Doctors and nurses, who have had to use the same protective gear again and again, are getting sick. So many people are dying that the city is running low on body bags.

At the same time, there is not a high volume of noncoronavirus patients. ... The solution, he and others said, was to open the Comfort to patients with Covid-19.

"It's pretty ridiculous," [Dowling] said. "If you're not going to help us with the people we need help with, what's the purpose?" ...

From the outset, readying the hospital ship for use in a pandemic proved a challenge. ... Any outbreak on board could quickly spread and disable the ship's operations. As a precaution, the ship's crew isolated for two weeks before embarking on their mission to New York. They must remain onboard for the duration of their mission in New York.

The ship has struggled to fulfill civilian missions in the past. ... A military physician who had previously served on the Navy's hospital ships said in an interview that conditions on board were suitable for soldiers, but, with its narrow bunked cots instead of modern hospital beds, it was not ideal for treating civilians.