
The 1k-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients - kull
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html
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blhack
This hospital ship was meant to house _non-covid_ patients. It's meant as
surge capacity for the NY hospital system. Of course it isn't full yet. Of
course it isn't full of covid patients right now, it isn't ever supposed to be
full of covid patients. It's not a joke. The joke is that the Ny Times of all
places let this ridiculous article go to print when a simple search, or even a
_summary_ of the DAILY press conferences where this is covered would have
explained the situation.

If NY thinks it's a joke, and it isn't being useful by being there, then NY
should be calling for it to be sent somewhere else. I bet the 20 patients who
are there now sure are happy to have a hospital that isn't infected with the
virus[1] right now.

As a side note: this brand of journalism is disgusting to me. Articles like
this absolutely do not help _anyone_. You can lump this sort of thing right in
with the people who ask EVERY SINGLE DAY why we didn't start acting sooner.
EVERY DAY they ask this at the press conference. People want to know things
like when they can get tested, if their parents are going to die, or if
they're going to be able to pay for food this week. But every day they waste
this precious time we get with these experts asking stupid self-serving
questions like why we didn't start sooner. What possible answer to the
question could help any of the very real existential problems Americans and
their families are facing right now?

[1]: There needs to be an easier name than "sars cov2" for this. It only
creates confusion where people either choose to call it "coronavirus" or
"covid".

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Simulacra
This brand of journalism is the new norm. The media has abdicated its
responsibility of reporting truth and facts, and instead turned into the
opposition party to the President.

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mcphage
> instead turned into the opposition party to the President

If you think the last 3 years of kid-glove reporting has been "opposition
party", then an _actual_ critical news media would blow your mind.

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Simulacra
Oh it would! It would uncover all of the crimes and coverups of the democratic
party. I would LOVE it if journalists acted like, you know, real journalists
instead of tabloid political hacks.

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mcphage
It would also result in headlines constantly talking about “Trump Lied About
$X”, instead of “falsehood” or “baseless allegation” or whatever weasel word
they pick that day to avoid saying what everybody already knows to be true.

Or to put it another way: remember the Obama-era scandal of the Tan Suit? Take
that level of spite, and apply it to the most incompetent toddler to ever
grace the office of President. That’s what an opposition press would look
like. If you have a problem with this, I really don’t think you could handle
that.

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dmckeon
We should not be surprised - this is what Puerto Rico saw after Maria:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/puerto-rico-
hurricane-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-
maria-hospital-ship.html)

> The ship was prepared to support 250 hospital beds, but over its 53-day
> deployment, which included travel to and from the island, it admitted an
> average of only six patients a day, or 290 in total. An additional 1,625
> people were treated aboard the ship as outpatients, all at no cost.

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throwaway5752
It excludes COVID-19 patients. Patients have to be evaluated at local
hospitals (presumably, contracting COVID-19).

 _“If I’m blunt about it, it’s a joke,” Michael Dowling, the head of New
York’s Northwell Health hospital system, told the Times._

Northwell has 70,000 employees.

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dboreham
You could see this coming days ago when it was announced these ships would be
for "non-virus patients". Obviously there's no way to know for sure that
someone doesn't have the virus, in any reasonable time, even if you do test
them .

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tgtweak
I assumed it was there for overflow of non-covid patients, is that not the
case? Are NY hospitals over capacity?

edit: seems this is addressed later in the article but for some reason NYT is
paywalling/registerwalling this after the fold for me.

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jfim
From TFA:

> Ambulances cannot take patients directly to the Comfort; they must first
> deliver patients to a city hospital for a lengthy evaluation — including a
> test for the virus — and then pick them up again for transport to the ship.

> Ultimately, Mr. Dowling and others said, if the Comfort refuses to take
> Covid patients, there are few patients to send. And given the pernicious
> spread of the disease in New York City, where nearly 50,000 were infected as
> of Thursday, dividing patients into those who have it and those who do not
> is pointless, he said.

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kevin_thibedeau
Given the proximity to Javitz you'd think they'd have a Covid wing for
handling these cases.

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jariel
Shouldn't be cynical, it could be a matter of rampup, other hospitals knowing
when to send, when not to, testing problems etc.. In not a long time it could
very well be full.

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kevin_thibedeau
Let's all watch the Magnificent Leader play the blame game on this one.

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twomoretime
You know, there's been a common pattern among all of these screwups recently.
The people in charge and involved don't seem to know what they're doing.

It's as if all of our systems are being tested, and they're all failing. There
are systemic problems in the US that desperately need to be addressed. Perhaps
this virus will force us to do so...one way or another.

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imgabe
It's almost as if choosing leaders based on whose soundbites generate the most
media coverage isn't a good idea.

