The Trump regime made a big show of sending two of the Navy's hospital ships, the U.S.N.S. Comfort and U.S.N.S. Mercy, to ports in New York and Los Angeles respectively, but it would apparently be a mistake to think these ships were doing much to help.
The ships are suppose to take patients with other conditions so area hospitals can focus on responding to patients infected by the coronavirus, but there's so many restriction and a list of conditions the ships won't treat there's hardly anyone on them at all.
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.” [...]
“It’s pretty ridiculous,” he said. “If you’re not going to help us with the people we need help with, what’s the purpose?”
If we're being "blunt," the purpose is to look like Trump is doing something.
It's not clear exactly what specific conditions the hospital ships won't treat, but there is a list of nearly 50 conditions they aren't accepting according to the New York Times. That's nearly 50 in addition to not accepting virus patients.
A Pentagon spokesperson said today that some restrictions will be lifted so more patients can be transported to the ships but, during his daily press briefing, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he has no knowledge of them lifting restrictions.
The Trump regime is poorly coordinating and in some cases -- like in the case of procuring medical equipment -- outright refusing to coordinate. And I don't think anyone is under any illusion at all that things wouldn't be different if New York were a red state with a Republican governor.
American conservatives have 'owned the libs' directly into a worse disaster that will come for them, too.