When the USNS Comfort first arrived in New York Harbor, it was seen as a symbol of hope and stability in a city that desperately needed both. Now, the massive, 894-foot military hospital, which discharged its last patient on Sunday, represents a calamity that never struck and predictions that never became reality.

The Trump administration sent Comfort to New York City at a time when New York officials worried that the city’s healthcare system would be overrun with COVID-19 patients and unable to treat anyone else. At one point, the city’s hospitals were accepting nearly 2,000 coronavirus patients a day, and the death toll spiked to more than 800 per day. This wasn’t an ordinary crisis, so it clearly required an extraordinary response. But then the city’s curve began to flatten, ICU admissions steadily decreased, and Comfort announced its departure after treating only 182 patients.