On March 18, 2020 President Trump announced that two Navy hospital ships would be sent to east and west coast coronavirus “hot spots” to “help alleviate non-COVID-19 medical needs”. The USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) docked in New York City Harbor and USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) to provide West Coast support docked in Los Angeles.[1, 2, 3] They were dipatched on March 28, 2020 to NY.
The ships were barely used, yet UCU’s in some NY hospitals were over ran. By April 2, 2020, NY Times stated “A tangle of military protocols and bureaucratic hurdles has prevented the Comfort from accepting many patients at all”. By April 21, 2020 NY Govenor said they were no longer needed“. [4, 5]