The U.S. Navy’s two massive hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy, are presently deployed to Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York, respectively. Both vessels are helping to ease the burden on hospitals ashore that are treating growing numbers of patients with the COVID-19 novel coronavirus by providing critical medical attention to individuals with other, unrelated ailments. The ships have become an important symbol of the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic, which makes it all the more interesting to remember that the Navy pushed to retire them two years ago, the Drive reports.
