Why Not Send Mercy and Comfort?
With the Ebola crisis apparently far from being controlled in Africa, the Obama administration has committed a large contingent of American troops to the fight and now is reportedly weighing the possibility of bringing African victims to the U.S. for treatment.
I have a suggestion to make: why not send Mercy and Comfort into the battle zone to inject the tremendous life-saving resources they possess?
For those of you who don’t know, the USNS Mercy (pictured above) and her sister ship, the USNS Comfort, are two huge hospital ships maintained by the United States Navy to provide stand-off, life-saving medical care for U.S. forces in combat. These two vessels share the distinction of being the second-largest ships in the fleet, bested in length only by the Nimitz-class supercarriers. The Mercy, home-ported in San Diego, has a maximum patient capacity of 1,000 beds, as does the Comfort, which is home-ported at Norfolk. True, with all the special precautions required in treating Ebola patients, that capacity would no doubt be substantially reduced. Still, the augmentation they could provide the beleaguered medical community in West Africa at this critical time would be tremendous.
And yes, there is plenty of precedence for such a non-military humanitarian mission. The Comfort was docked in midtown Manhattan immediately following the 9/11 attacks. She stood offshore in the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans following Katrina, treating victims of that terrible storm, and did the same off Haiti following the 2010 earthquake there. Mercy has conducted similar humanitarian missions in the Pacific Rim, most notably following the 2005 tsunami in Southeast Asia.
So I will ask this administration this: why bring Ebola patients within our borders and risk the possibility of a wildfire epidemic that could have a devastating impact on our nation when we could very capably treat hundreds of those same patients aboard those two floating hospitals sitting a few miles offshore from West Africa?
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Military issues
Why not send them?
Because that would be the rational, common sense, compassionate thing to do.
In other words, the exact opposite of the Obama administration
Another great idea. You guys are on fire. Need to get it done.
Solid idea, although because of strategic reasons I doubt we’d send both at the same time. Still 1,000 beds is better than zero.
‘Why bring Ebola patients within our borders and risk the possibility of a wildfire epidemic that could have a devastating impact?’
Pick one of the following:
1 – Because it’s a photo opportunity.
2 – Because it’s in the ‘do something’ mindset.
3 – Because it can’t possibly spread here as fast as it has in Africa.
4 – Because it shows his real contempt for this country.
5 – All of the above.
I really doubt this will fly in the face of public backlash.
Liberals (and Conservatives) that have not gone overseas will not want to risk themselves even for their “brethren”.
I’ll go with #5.
‘Cause the decision makers don’t know they exist.
Poetrooper…You’re making way too much sense. You wrote, “why bring Ebola patients within our borders and risk the possibility of a wildfire epidemic that could have a devastating impact on our nation”? Why? Because they will be immediate welfare, SNAP card and Section 8 Housing recipients AND future Democratic voters for their savior Obama and all those he points to and says, “VOTE”.
I say, keep them as far away from America as they already are. Why add fresh fuel to a smoldering ember already here? Of course Obama’s policy on “civilian” quarantine would no doubt apply to them and since they are so intelligent and not given to silly superstitions they would comply. This could be a disaster of epic proportions in a short time for this country.
I don’t care what it takes anymore. Please save us from this idiot Obama.
On the gripping hand, I’ll tell you why I think it would be a bad idea.
The ships are welded to the pier. They’re woefully understaffed and would have to cannibalize staff from Navy MTFs that are woefully understaffed.
They are under-supplied and under-maintained. They cost between $1-2M a day to get underway and stay underway (that’s operating costs, not cost of personnel, equipment and medical supplies). 50% of the operating effort is keeping the NGO and humanitarian aid folks from killing each other.
The Ebola outbreak in Africa is a public health issue made worse by the absence of appropriate care at the lowest levels, community hygiene, and education, none of which is in the primary mission of a hospital ship. Filling the Mercy and/or Comfort with end-stage Ebola patients who will require lots and lots of expensive care before they eventually and inevitably die at mortality rate that won’t differ substantially than if they hadn’t been treated at all.
I’d rather see a couple of WASP-class amphibs loaded with public health doctors, nurses and corpsmen who can train in-country nationals to manage the public health aspects of disease management (much like Nigeria successfully has done).
Hospital ships look good on the nightly news. They are an anachronism and an inefficient use of limited resources. They worst they might do is create a refugee crisis.
If we sent anything, it should be an LHD or two.
Yet we can send them on “deployments” such as Continuing Promise and Pacific Partnership? I’d rather see the ships sent to assist as Poetrooper suggests than another 6 month band-aid diplomacy mission to hand out school supplies, teach people how to wash their hands, and maybe, MAYBE conduct a few cataract surgeries.
I would like to point out that the Mercy and Comfort are not constantly staffed.
They remain it a state of readiness and can have a full crew of Military mixed with Civilian in about 5 days. The majority of the medical staff would come from Portsmouth Naval Hospital
The Mercy is a constant part of the background at Pier 1 outside my shops window. It’s so much of a background filler that nobody notices right away when she does get underway.
Co-worker: Hey! Where’d the Mercy go?
Me: Let’s see, the last time I consciously noticed her was Monday.
Co-worker: Yeah, but it’s now Friday.
Ditto when she returns.
Co-worker: Hey! When did the Mercy get back?
Me: Let’s see, the last time I consciously noticed the empty pier was Monday.
Co-worker: Yeah, but it’s now Friday.
I’m wondering how difficult it is to transport Ebola patients onto a ship. Is their sufficient pier space/depth available for one or both ships? Or would they have to anchor off-shore? (The logistics of getting infectious patients to an off-shore boat are likely “non-trivial”.)
We had one in Haiti and there were a number of Haitians that were treated onboard so it can be a good thing. The bad part was getting people out there to the ship since it could not go pierside. The injured traveled mostly by small boat. I don’t think you could transport people with a highly infectious disease by small boat though. The navy did use Peleliu in somewhat the same way a couple of years back but again, why bring anyone aboard a ship with an infectious disease? Moving people anywhere is just a dumb idea. Build facilities in Liberia and provide supplies. Probably our best COA by far.
Why don’t we just send that f***ing nurse up in Maine back there since she has all the answers.
Please, spend some time over at Aesop’s site reading common sense about Ebola? Please?!!! Sending those to ‘help’….won’t. Can’t help. Ever. http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/
Too much common sense.
I’ve served on both ships and think it is a reasonable idea. As Enigma states, the ships (the MTF side at least) are normally staffed with about 70 active-duty Navy personnel, with a large amount of personnel in quick-recall billets at both Portsmouth and San Diego (per each ship). They are supposed to be able to get underway in five days; the permanent staff’s job is to keep them ready to go.
They each have four ICU’s with one each being large isolation wards. The problem as I see it is with Ebola patients, you’d really only be able to use the isolation wards, with the rest of the very expensive ship sitting idle. Lots of money for a small usable space.
Seems like the better plan would be to set up mobile hospitals with isolation wards on an as-needed basis. The US military also has the capability. Not as sexy and photogenic as a big white ship, but effective.