Mississippi asks Biden administration to send military hospital ship

[left-of-center2012]

Hard-hit Mississippi has requested the federal government send a military hospital ship such as the USNS Comfort, state health official Jim Craig said Wednesday.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has 127 COVID-19 patients, including 26 children, Dean LouAnn Woodward said Wednesday. About 90% of them are unvaccinated, she said.

The dean warned, "The Mississippi hospital system will fail within the next five to seven or 10 days if the current trajectory continues.”

click link and scroll down:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/live-updates/covid-delta-variant/?id=79359387&cid=clicksource_4380645_1_heads_hero_live_hero_hed#79410436

[DURHAM D]

1. I wonder how many hospital ships the US has

on the east coast.

[Sherman A1]

5. One

[sarge43]

34. Two

USNS Mercy, but it's tied up for maintenance.

https://news.usni.org/2021/01/05/hospital-ship-mercy-tied-up-in-maintenance-cant-deploy-for-covid-relief

[zuul]

11. I wonder how long it would take for it to reach Mississippi.

I think there is only one deep water port (Port of Gulfport) that could accommodate such a ship. The Gulf of Mexico is pretty shallow along the coast.

Oh wait, the Port of Pascagoula has one too.

[GulfCoast66]

14. They should send it to New Orleans. Close enough to Mississippi

And Louisiana may soon need it as well.

[zuul]

15. Nah, keep those assholes in Mississippi.

I don't want them stinking up my city.

[rampartc]

17. pascagoulas and gulfport.

[zuul]

20. ???

Yes, those are the 2 ports I mentioned.

[obamanut2012]

13. One

[IronLionZion]

49. 2 main ones: Comfort on the east, Mercy on the west

Plus a bunch of regular ships that also include hospital capabilities:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_ship#Other_shipborne_hospitals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_(T-AH-20)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Mercy_(T-AH-19)

[Botany]

2. Republicans are killing America.

But you know that Biden will help 'em out.

"The Mississippi hospital system will fail within the next five to seven or 10 days if the current trajectory continues.”

BTW the A.A. & Hispanics who will not get a vaccine are killing us too.

[Elessar Zappa]

7. Blacks and Hispanics have a slightly lower rate than whites overall,

but the number one group of unvaccinated people is Republicans, specifically Republican men.

[Calista241]

54. That is not true, and there is no data to support that.

The CDC and other believable sources for vaccination data do not collect data on political affiliation. Anything said or heard about supporting the idea that only Repubs are dying to COVID is anecdotal at best.

In fact, if we look at the age old understanding that young people lean Dem and older people lean Red, you can see the fallacy of this argument.

According to the CDC, the least unvaccinated groups are adults age 18-24 and 25-39. Those age groups would appear on the surface to lean blue.

Older Americans are some of the most highly vaccinated, with people 65-74 reporting a 93% (one dose) vaccination rate, and people 75+ reporting an 88% (one dose) vaccination rate.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographics-trends

The virus doesn't give a shit about political beliefs, and I'm positive that people on both sides of the aisle are suffering from this.

[Aviation Pro]

30. Because he's the bigger and better man

....

[lindysalsagal]

3. They're not gonna be happy until everyone is dead.

[2naSalit]

18. Gotta have that rapture thing ya know...

And this might be how they figure to make the nonbelievers dead since we weren't cooperating.

[panader0]

4. When will the Governor of South Dakota ask for one too?

[Ray Bruns]

21. LOL

[Ilsa]

35. OMG!

[usaf-vet]

57. Ask? No! DEMAND and when she doesn't get one she will blame Biden and the liberals.

She won't even consider it's a ship and needs water.

[JoanofArgh]

6. So 10% of vaccinated were hospitalized.

Don’t like those numbers at all.

[vanlassie]

19. About 10% of hospitalized were vaccinated.

Makes a difference.

[JoanofArgh]

27. You're right. I phrased that wrong, lol

Still don’t like it.

[gab13by13]

24. How many of those were children

not eligible for vaccination?

[sanatanadharma]

8. Curious to know haw many previous letters to Mississippi editors poo-pooed NY and CA hospital ships

What would a search of various Mississippi newspapers from last year show, when hospital ships were sent to CA and NY.

In 2021 the Covid-19 problem was a decadent-liberal-citified problem that did not/ would not affect good Christian conservative rural communities because God or something.

My desire to throw their shit back in their faces is disconcerting and seriously un-Christian.
Thankfully, I am seriously not a Christian.

[kysrsoze]

9. How about some thoughts and prayers!

That should be enough, shouldn't it?

[PlanetBev]

10. Gee, all of a sudden the southern states want help from the Feds

I guess them interferin’ Yankees is good for somethin’.

[jpak]

12. No Comfort without mandatory masking, vaccination and

CRT teaching K-12

Yup

[lindysalsagal]

40. +1000. nt

[ShazzieB]

16. Mississippians wouldn't take the FREE vaccine that was offered to them.

And now that the very predictable results are here, state health officials are like, "Joe, please save our state from the stupidity of its residents!"

Of course, the state health officials asking for this ship aren't the same people who are going, "Vaccines? We don't need no stinkin' vaccines!" But I can't help wondering how hard those same state health officials have really tried to promote the vaccines and convince people to take them.

Of course we should help them, for moral and ethical reasons. But imo, that help should come with a good talking to about getting people's asses vaccinated.

[Ray Bruns]

22. Hey, Mississippi

GFY

[world wide wally]

23. Treat the kids and tell the adults to go to Texas

[Jilly_in_VA]

51. +1

[lpbk2713]

25. And when this all dies down they will still say "screw you Biden"

You knew I was a snake when you took me in.

[Baitball Blogger]

26. So, which landlocked red state will be the first to ask for help from the military ship?

Place your bets.

[sarisataka]

28. Hopefully it will be more helpful

Than when it went to NY. Didn't it handle an average of less than one patient a day?

[flying_wahini]

29. Two hurricanes headed there now.

What could possibly go wrong with this?

[ancianita]

33. Just a tropical depression near Cuba, and another unlikely hurricane formation in the Atlantic.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov

[obamanut2012]

37. We have zero hurricanes anywhere

Come on, man.

[3825-87867]

31. Wait for it...

"Now's not the time to talk about it..."

Just like guns. And when it's finally over and done (if it will be) THEN we can talk about it...and guns...and race..etal, ad infinitum.

But "My child, My choice!"

And the worst part is, the media will gloss it over after it really is over and find some other reason to blame anyone but Republicans.

[NQAS]

32. Response?

Um, yeah. No.

Or. . .

Um, yeah, that'll be $64 billion please.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

36. This was preventable and yet this state did not listen

freakin charge them for their ignorance.

We take care of all americans, don't be an idiots listen the first time.

[3825-87867]

39. The problem with charging them is

not everyone will pay the same! And some probably won't pay at all...because White and/or wealthy.

The result will be more will die or suffer of health or food issues. But not the wealthy or upper level whites.

[Native]

38. Well, there goes my hope for Florida getting the ship.

I guess we'll have to do with field hospitals when the time comes.

[Akoto]

42. Freaking DeSantis would probably turn it away, were one to arrive. n/t

[Evolve Dammit]

44. unlike a crooze ship, no money to be had.

[usaf-vet]

41. I have posted this rant many times before but here goes yet again.

In the mid-1960 I was a USAF Medic. At that time the military had mobile 150-bed hospitals that could be move in a 24 hour response time.

The hospital was entirely self-contained in that it had everything from A to Z that you would find in a mortar and brick facility. To name a few that you might not expect. It had animal care facilities (veterinarians), public health experts, dental facilities, its own power plant, water purification facilities, labs, medical wards, surgical ward, Ob-Gyn wards, operating rooms, pharmacy, and yes enough doctors, nurses, medics, and other staff to set up and be running in 24 hours or less.

The hospital was airmobile and could be flown anywhere it was needed. In fact, the hospital I was assigned to it was on the ground in March 1964 for the 9.2 earthquakes that hit Alaska https://tinyurl.com/ydn4w344

The mobile hospital was set up at least once a year to 1. check for outdated materials (meds), 2. check for damaged equipment and 3. in our case we set our hospital up in the summer so that air national guard medics could get experience with the mobile hospital.

As near as I can tell all of those hospitals were disband sometime in the 1970s. I never could understand why EXCEPT they downsized the military medical corp and converted to TriCare. You can't tell civilians to pack your bags and go TDY to a natural disaster and might be gone for days, weeks or, months.

In my mind, it was a short-sighted decision to PRIVATIZE a government-provided service.
And that march AND MENTALITY IS STILL PUSHING FORWARD. Just look at the current move to privatize the U.S. Postal services.

[Evolve Dammit]

46. Phasing out fallout shelters and ripping up our railroads will bite us one day too. Thanks for info.

Oh and all is electrionic, which will largely be fried after a nuclear detonation. We will be helpless if that starts, unless you are self-sufficient. Farmers and off-grid survivalists will probably be OK.

[halfulglas]

55. You are correct about TriCare but part of the reason is the end of the draft.

Medical personnel were not exempt from the draft. As a matter of fact after deferring them during their educational years, the military was eager to take advantage of their doctors. I worked in a number of hospitals in the 60s and 70s and many of the docs had stories to tell. One was inducted after his Ob-Gyn residency and spent his service years in NATO hospitals. He regaled us with many of his stories of learning to say, "Now push" in many different languages. (I think he secretly loved his time there.) Another, a chief resident was from Taiwan, loved the US. He wanted to stay and went through so much of the paperwork, etc of applying for permanent status, but when he found out during his first year he would be drafted (Vietnam years), he emigrated to Canada right after he finished his residency.

Part of the problem, I think, is that we didn't and don't prioritize READINESS as much now plus the huge conglomerates medical systems have become. We just seem to assume Public Health is infringing on "their territory" now. Or we'll just pick up what we need when we need it. That's not working out so well in a raging pandemic.

[usaf-vet]

56. Totally agree !!

Of course, I think we should reimplement the draft. If we did everyone who WAS eligible to be drafted AND ALL their family members would become politically active and OPPOSE any Bush / Cheney type wars that had us in never-ending (Afganastan) DEPLOYMENTS.

Every U.S. citizen needs to have a vested interest in starting wars that are started based on lies (WMD in Iraq) or The Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam.

Which apparently the moment we leave 20 years later the Taliban retakes what we shed blood to hold.

[Kev80]

43. McHale's Navy

Send in McHale’s Navy. 😷

[turbinetree]

45. This is on that asshole governor's watch he should have to literally pay the US Taxpayers for

the ship....his liberaitian mindset is nothing but BS, this article is from two days ago....

https://mississippitoday.org/2021/08/10/where-is-tate-reeves-during-covid-crisis/

He should fucking resign, not only is he an idiot, but he is killing people, and kids, because he thinks individual rights are more important and the greed from dark money to keep him in power...he and others of his ilk are nothing more than whack a mole governors.....if there is a medical reason not to wear a mask, that is what he said.....maybe this jerk should read this article literally.....but he will not....

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200813/covid19-and-masks-doctor-may-i-be-excused#:~:text=Here%20are%20some%20of%20the,to%20get%20used%20to%20it.

[Martin68]

47. The feds would require a fully implemented vaccination program and mask mandate as a condition

for sending a ship into danger.

[Grins]

48. From the state that wants to "Succeed" from the union...?

But...but...but...what about "States Rights?" "Rugged individualism?"

My response...

Mississippi: "Send us the hospital ship!!"
Federal government: "What about state's rights?"
Mississippi: (Guilty pause)...."Send us the hospital ship!"
Federal government: "Well, OK; but are you going to mandate vaccinations in the state?"
Mississippi: "No."
Federal government: "Well, then, go fuck yourself. It would serve no purpose."


Note: Mississippi state Rep. Price Wallace (R-SoreAss) said days after the Nov. 2020 election and Biden was president-elect:

“We need to “succeed” (Proof he is a Republican) from the union and form our own country.”

And here you are today....

[Wingus Dingus]

50. Who pays for this? Who pays for the bad choices these anti-mask/anti-distancing

anti-vaccination people continue to make? We all do, as state and federal taxpayers, as health care consumers, and as human beings.

[JesterCS]

52. I'd just tell them no.

you made your bed, now lay in it. im beyond tolerance for anti mask/vaxxers

[Jilly_in_VA]

53. Yeah, no

Mississhitty did EVERYTHING wrong, so NOW they want the feds to bail them out? I don't think so.

My compassion has been exhausted.

[Paladin]

58. Not only no, but FUCK no. (nt)

[nitpicker]

59. As I said before, there's only one ship

That couldn't get there until next week even if DoD said OK right now.

I think a faster solution would be to send in medical teams to supplement maxed-out hospital staff ((and field hospitals too if beds are also an issue)).

[left-of-center2012]

60. "there's only one ship"

The U.S. Navy has two hospital ships: the USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and the USNS Comfort (T-AH-20).

These ships are unmistakable, with their gleaming bright white hulls and huge red crosses painted on the sides.

Both ships are converted San Clemente-class supertankers that were built in the 1970s by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, and then purchased by the Navy and converted to hospital ships in the late 1980s. Military Sealift Command operates both ships.

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/military-hospital-ships-3354133