On Thursday, though, the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating local hospital executives. 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 (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men.... Another Navy hospital ship, the U.S. Naval Ship 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."
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 Donald Trump
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat
The Smartest Woman in the Worldin the general election...
left a nine-day sequester in the White House last week to travel to Norfolk, Virginia, to personally see off the ship as it set sail for New York, saying it would play a "critical role." The ship’s arrival Monday was cheered as one of the few bright moments in a grim time for the city.