Deploying a floating naval hospital to New York City sent a powerful message of support amid the coronavirus crisis — but officials may have “underestimated the difficulties” the ship would face battling a pandemic, some experts said Tuesday.
Amid developments that include the accidental admission of infected patients and a crew member testing positive for the disease, Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the USNS Comfort is facing more difficulty than anticipated.
“The original assumption that they could control access onto the ship of patients who were free of COVID-19 was very unrealistic,” said Morrison, director of the Washington, DC-based think tank’s Global Health Policy Center.
“The ship is fitted out for battlefield injuries — it was not designed for dealing with a highly infectious and highly transmissible outbreak.”
Morrison said it was “inevitable” that the US military would be activated to help respond to the pandemic, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo publicly requested of President Trump last month, and said that the Comfort, which is docked at Pier 90 on Manhattan’s West Side, “has a highly symbolic importance to people.”
“Every chief of naval operations that I’ve talked to over the years has been very positive about the utility” of the Comfort and the Mercy, its sister ship deployed to Los Angeles, he said.
“They have great public morale benefits.”
Morrison, who studied both ships for a 2013 research paper he co-authored, also called Monday’s decision by President Trump to allow the Comfort to start treating coronavirus patients “a positive step.”
“In order to be responsive to needs, they need to take on that risk and take on the task of managing the virus on that ship,” he said.
“I think they’re learning as they move ahead and they’re adjusting their protocols for what they can and cannot do — and I think that means they’ll make a more meaningful contribution.”
Naval War College Professor James Holmes, who said his views didn’t represent those of the Navy or the US government, echoed the symbolic importance of the Comfort, saying, “Hospital ships reassure New Yorkers, in particular, that they are not alone in this.”
“They provide, well, comfort; and comfort and hope are as important in this time of trial as the medical services the crew renders,” he said.
But Holmes, an expert in maritime strategy, questioned whether the Comfort and the Mercy were the “best implements for the job,” noting, “There are alternatives.”
“In World War II, we got very good at re-purposing merchant and other civilian ships for military use,” said Holmes, who deployed with both the Comfort and the Mercy during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm.
“We could well convert cruise ships to medical use for the duration. Or we could even procure some of them outright, paint them white with red crosses and commission them into permanent naval service.”
Retired Navy Capt. Albert Shimkus, who commanded the Comfort’s medical treatment facility during 2006 and 2007, said it would be “possible” to press cruise ships into military service but noted that they would “have to be reconfigured to function as hospitals.”
“The likelihood of that is probably remote but I’m sure people are looking at contingencies and would consider that to be part of the solution set,” said Shimkus, who also teaches at the Naval War College and said his views didn’t represent those of the Navy or US government.
Shimkus said he was confident that the crew of the Comfort — which like the Mercy is a former oil supertanker with outfitted with drop-in, modular medical units — would be able to isolate coronavirus patients from others who aren’t infected.
“There are physical barriers on the ship, which means there’s a physical separation,” he said.
“They’re very cautious moving from one side to the other.”
Shimkus also said the risk posed by having coronavirus patients on board was no worse than “at places where field hospitals have been set up.”
“I think the Navy medical department and those serving on the ship are prepared to deal with those problems,” he said.
“I am optimistic that the crew of the Comfort and the Mercy will be of significant value to the citizens of those parts of the country.”