Advertisement
U.S. markets open in 5 hours 22 minutes
  • S&P Futures

    5,207.00
    -7.75 (-0.15%)
     
  • Dow Futures

    39,216.00
    -7.00 (-0.02%)
     
  • Nasdaq Futures

    18,174.25
    -57.25 (-0.31%)
     
  • Russell 2000 Futures

    2,046.00
    -3.80 (-0.19%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    82.45
    -0.27 (-0.33%)
     
  • Gold

    2,158.40
    -5.90 (-0.27%)
     
  • Silver

    25.15
    -0.11 (-0.46%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0854
    -0.0022 (-0.21%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.3400
    0.0000 (0.00%)
     
  • Vix

    14.51
    +0.18 (+1.26%)
     
  • dólar/libra

    1.2698
    -0.0031 (-0.24%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    150.3540
    +1.2560 (+0.84%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    64,366.90
    -3,631.75 (-5.34%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,722.55
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    40,003.60
    +263.20 (+0.66%)
     

USNS Mercy deployed to LA during coronavirus crisis

Yahoo Finance’s Melody Hahm spoke with Captain John Rotruck, USNS Mercy Commanding Officer, about how his Navy hospital ship is helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

- Uh, but I do want to switch gears and get our very own Melody Hahm in here. She had a very, very important interview with the leader of The Mercy which is now rolling into Los Angeles to help the coronavirus fight. Melody.

MELODY HAHM: Yes, Brian. As we speak, the USNS Mercy is actually approaching the Port of Los Angeles. It originally had an ETA of 9:00 AM local time. I guess it's an hour ahead of schedule, and I had the opportunity to speak with the commanding officer of the ship.

His name is John Rotruck, and he had some really interesting insights. Of course, he has a fascinating background. He has his MBA. He's also a doctor. But now he's running sort of a small operation, right? When you think about it there are 1,000 hospital beds on this ship. There are over 800 medical personnel. And they were able to whip this ship into shape and bring it from San Diego to Los Angeles over the last couple of days.

I asked him about the sentiment on the ship, right, as we think about this pandemic, and how it's really affected people's mental health, burnout rates. And he said that overall, people are feeling actually very optimistic, enthusiastic. Listen to what he had to say.

CAPTAIN JOHN ROTRUCK: I would say there is tremendous enthusiasm for this mission. It's a unique opportunity for us to be able to actually serve our fellow Americans in this way. So I see lots of smiles, lots of happy faces. And people seem very genuinely enthused about this opportunity. This is definitely a unique opportunity for me. I've never really seen anything like it, and particularly the speed with which everyone came together to move forward with this mission.

Uh, I can tell you what I mentioned before, there's tremendous enthusiasm amongst the crew. Navy medicine trains for this sort of mission. You know, we train to be agile. We're train to be resilient, and do anything that the country asks of us. And we're very excited that we're able to use that agility in this case to actually help our fellow Americans.

MELODY HAHM: And Brian, I know we focus a lot on the supply chain, and a lot of the disruption that's been happening especially with medical supplies. So I did ask him whether he's anticipating some special privileges, right. Being part of the military and being under FEMA, and he said that they do get their supplies through regular supply chains just like hospitals, but there are stockpiles that the Department of Defense could potentially unlock if say they run out of hand sanitizer, masks, and the like.

I want to be clear that the ship is not to treat COVID-19 patients. It's for hospitals to be transferring patients who do not seem to have COVID symptoms. Of course, we know that a lot of patients are asymptomatic so he says there are kind of contingency plans in place to quarantine folks who are showing symptoms.

ALEXIS: Yeah, that's an excellent resource, Melody, because so many people who are going in for help with things outside of COVID-19 are then exposing themselves the longer they stay in these hospitals. So, great that that ship is there.

On that point of supplies, is he saying that they're having any trouble at all? And might that stockpile you're talking about that the military has, can they and should they be sending it to the hospitals that need it right now to fight COVID-19?

MELODY HAHM: Yeah it's fascinating, Alexis because I asked about the different kind of capabilities. And it essentially operates like any sort of commercial kind of run of the mill hospital. The only departments that will not be offered on the ship, in terms of care, Is pediatrics, as well as obstetrics. So they will offer gynecology but they will not be allowing to deliver babies on the ship, although that would be a pretty epic experience.

I don't think they're necessarily tapping into that stockpile just yet. And of course, he is a military man. So he was very few on words when it came to actually divulging. He said that he ultimately reports to FEMA.

- Yeah.

MELODY HAHM: And it depends--

- --Well we'll have--

MELODY HAHM: --on FEMA supply chain.

- We'll have to leave it there. Melody Hahm very good insight.

Advertisement