America gives more medical and humanitarian assistance than any other country. At home, America is meeting the increased medical needs of its citizens in a unique way across with both government and private industry. Two U.S. Navy hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, are now taking on civilian patients while docked at the ports of Los Angeles and New York.
This expanded hospital capacity is part of the government’s “whole-of-America approach” to fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are marshaling the full power of the American nation — economic, scientific, medical and military — to vanquish the virus,” President Trump said at the March 28 launch of the USNS Comfort. The United States has previously deployed the hospital ships to help foreign civilians with both disaster and humanitarian relief. For example, the USNS Mercy cared for victims of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, and the USNS Comfort helped Haitians following the 2010 earthquake there.
At the same time, the U.S. private sector is facing the challenge posed by the COVID-19 virus through innovate responses.
As medical staff care for patients across the country, the need for protective N95 disposable respirators is skyrocketing. In response, the manufacturing giant Honeywell is ramping up its production of N95 masks and hiring 500 new employees. The tech company Apple announced that it will donate millions of N95 masks for health professionals across the U.S. and Europe to help with more immediate needs. To further help hospitals, several U.S. companies are gearing up to produce ventilators in factories that are equipped to do so. Carmaker Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, is exploring options to manufacture the equipment in partnership with medical equipment facilities. In the meantime, he purchased 1,255 FDA-approved ventilators to be distributed throughout the country.
Additionally, the United States is making theworld’s most advanced supercomputers available to scientists around the globe to help fight the coronavirus. The Department of Energy is home to the world’s fastest and most powerful supercomputers,” U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said. “We are excited to partner with leaders across the scientific community who will use our world class innovation and technology to combat COVID-19.” The White House recently announced a new collaboration between the U.S. government, technology companies and research universities. This initiative will “unleash the power of American supercomputing resources to help researchers discover new treatments and vaccines,” President Trump said on March 22.
