At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, in the spring of 2020, Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to then-New York governor Andrew Cuomo received a letter from an American Navy Vice Admiral. The letter asked for facilitating usage of USNS Comfort to treat COVID patients. The offer was rejected for fear of political provocation, the New York Post reports.
New York, Covid and Comfort
At the time, Cuomo allowed, because of hospital overcrowding, COVID patients to be treated in nursing homes, which, according to some experts, resulted in at least 15,000 additional casualties. Meanwhile, there were only 37 patients on board the USNS Comfort, a 1,000-bed ship.
Against this background, journalists, using an email archive obtained by activist Peter Arbeeny and handed over to the newspaper, found out that Vice Admiral Mike Dumont was asking Cuomo to lift the red tape and use USNS Comfort.
"We could use some help from your office," Dumont wrote in an April 7 letter to Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa. "The Governor asked us to permit use of USNS COMFORT to treat patients without regard to their COVID status and we have done so. Right now we only have 37 patients aboard the ship. Further, we are treating only 83 patients at the Javits Events Center [which at that time reportedly had capacity of 2,500 beds]."
"We have been trying for days to get the Health Evacuation Coordination Center (HECC) to transfer more patients to us but with little success. We are told by NYC officials the HECC falls under the State’s Department of Health," the email continued. "Our greatest concern is two-fold: helping take the strain off local hospitals, and not wasting high-end capabilities the US military has brought to NYC. We appreciate the help."
DeRosa forwarded the letter received to several officials in charge of covid control:
Michael Kopy, director of New York’s emergency management office
Howard Zucker New York’s Health Commissioner
Michael J. Dowling, the private CEO of Northwell Health, the state’s largest health care provider.
Whom to blame?
Kopy, reportedly, blamed The Comfort, saying that it was the ship's operating rules that were too complicated and did not allow it to be used as efficiently as possible.
"[HECC] are following criteria established by the comfort for admission to the comfort as well as criteria for the javits," he wrote.
DeRosa, reportedly, decided that there was an attempt at political provocation in order to further indict Cuomo for the ineffective fight against the disease.
"They are setting this up to say that we are the reason the ship and javitts [sic] are empty –I’m going to loop you guys on the email. we need to make clear in writing that what he has written here is not true," she wrote, according to the newspaper.
Dumont, who retired in 2021, said there had been a serious misunderstanding and was deeply disappointed.
"It is discouraging to learn they completely misread and misunderstood the request for assistance," he said. "My request was solely to highlight the low numbers of patients being treated and ask for their help in better utilizing the military medical resources available. There was nothing in the request that was not truthful... How they reached these conclusions is both perplexing and discouraging."
However, there was a statement from the then governor of New York that by the time all authorisation procedures had been complied with, the USNS Comfort was no longer needed due to good governance.
"The fed’s own bureaucratic rules prevented the ship from being utilized — but by the time it arrived and finally allowed COVID patients on board, fears about the hospitals getting overburdened had largely passed as we increased capacity, balanced patient loads between facilities and New Yorkers banded together to crush the curve," said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
'We are sorry'
Moreover, Cuomo's spokesperson also stated that it was Trump's federal government policies that led to such an unfortunate result.
"This was Trump’s federal government, which constantly played politics with everything related to New York and COVID and so it yes, it should shock no one that we were skeptical of their motives. As is evident from the emails, the red tape the admiral claimed prevented patient inflow did not exist. If his feelings were hurt, we’re sorry about that," Azzopardi said.
Azzopardi was referring to the April 7 paper from the state Department of Health noted in red that the "USNS Comfort cannot support patients with these conditions at this time" and providing 45 different conditions including "known pregnancy," "all neurosurgical procedures," and "any immunosuppressed patients."
Dumont defended the Comfort stating that: "these limits are based upon limited pharmacy capacity, unique medical equipment requirements the ship does not have, or lack of medical specialists in those fields onboard the ship capable of handling those types of patients."
Disappointing outcome
Assemblyman Ron Kim, who was in charge of reviewing the exchange of emails, said the story was a typical example of Cuomo's style.
"[Cuomo is about] controlling the politics of the moment rather than actually fixing the problem. Everything was a conspiracy to attack the administration and I don’t think that is what the admiral or the US government intended," Kim said.
In the end, USNS Comfort served only 182 patients, and Javits only 1,095 people.
DeRosa declined to comment.