In this March 30, 2020 photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, gestures during a brief news conference as he stands beside a Rear Adm. John B. Mustin as the USNS Comfort. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday asked President Donald Trump to transition the USNS Comfort, docked at New York City, to begin transitioning to treat coronavirus patients.
The Mercy-class hospital ship was originally set up to aid with the overflow of non-COVID patients, but those cases have fallen off amid the citywide shutdown.
Now the ship's crew is quickly preparing to transition the hospital to serve as a field hospital for coronavirus patients, similar to the operation underway at the Javits Convention Center.
Indeed, the two federally run hospitals plan to coordinate their work to take advantage of their respective strengths and weaknesses.
"We're going to balance the levels of care required between the two stations," Joseph O'Brien, commodore of the Comfort's COVID response in New York City, told Cheddar.
Patients who are convalescing from coronavirus will likely go to the Javits Center, while more difficult cases will be funneled into the Comfort.
"We're taking some of the higher-complexity cases on board, due to the fact that we have a fully staffed hospital," O'Brien said.
The crew is currently working to reconfigure the ship so that it can accommodate coronavirus patients, which involves cutting the capacity in half from 1,000 to 500 beds.
This is necessary to create space so that more transmissions don't take place on the ship, O'Brien said.
One crew member of the Comfort so far has tested positive for coronavirus.
O'Brien said the entire crew was screened, not tested, five days before disembarking for New York City. Add in nine days at sea, and that almost meets the window of self-isolation. But, he said "that's the difference between screening and testing."
"Even though we did everything right. We were ahead of the curve. We were really stringent in our preps," he said. "That's what happens when you don't obey the order to stay inside."
Russian forces escalated their attacks on populated urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower.
A bipartisan group of 43 representatives joined forces in a letter to President Joe Biden to remind the executive branch that it must seek the approval of Congress before authorizing a war — whether or not its in Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore. 4th District) led the effort and joined Cheddar News Wrap to explain. "It's time for Congress to get back the authority, which is vested to us in the constitution, not in the executive branch," he said. "The president. once we're at war, we speak with one voice with the commander in chief. But before that, it's up to the American people and Congress whether or not we're going to become engaged in a war."
Chris Konstantinos, Chief Investment Strategist at RiverFront Investment Group, explains why he remains encouraged about the S&P and the state of the market despite the major indexes closing mostly lower on Monday.
President Joe Biden will be delivering his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and with so many issues from Ukraine to inflation, everyone will be focused on what he might say. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y. 11th District) joined Cheddar News to discuss what she thinks the president should address. "I think what he hasn't done yet is go after the gas, the oil, the minerals, the mining industries, that is incredibly important," she said. "There's still some banks there that are not sanctioned. He needs to go after all the banks, but I also think that providing the equipment that Ukraine needs to continue to protect its capital and its country are incredibly important."
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, one of its few big allies remaining appears to be China. Gordon Chang, Asian affairs expert and author of "The Coming Collapse of China," joined Cheddar News to discuss what might be behind China's support for Putin's current strategy. “I think China is looking at what Putin did yesterday, which is to raise his nuclear forces on a higher alert level,” Chang stated, “If they see that Putin gets away with his nuclear threats, which he's been making over the last three or four days, then I'm sure that Beijing is going to ramp up its threats as well, and it could ramp them up against any number of different countries with which it perceives it has a problem with"
Joel Rubin, president of the Washington Strategy Group and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, joins Cheddar News to discuss the Russia-Ukraine tensions and the new sanctions President Biden placed on Russia.
