The malaria medication unproven as a remedy for coronavirus sufferers is being given to sickened troops, Joint Staff Surgeon Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs said at the Pentagon Monday, adding that New York City still faces the biggest threat from the virus.
“The projections are proving not to be all that accurate,” he said, noting Defense Secretary Mark Esper had authorized use of the hospital ship USNS Comfort to take on COVID patients in its limited intensive care spaces.
Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman added: “DoD continues to surge assets to New York in preparation for the worst.”
The Javits Center in New York City, a convention center converted to a hospital by the Army Corps of Engineers, will have 1,700 beds ready by this Friday, he said. The center has already treated 44 COVID patients.
New York City now has 775 military medical personnel with 225 arriving Tuesday and 500 more on Wednesday. Eleven New York City hospitals will share 355 of the arriving medical personnel.
Friedrichs also said that animal testing for a vaccine begins today at the Army’s infectious disease laboratory in Fort Detrick, Md.
“This is a process that is going as quickly as it can,” Friedrichs said of the early stages of vaccine testing on animals, while underscoring that a vaccine is still “months away.”
“I don’t want to create a false expectation that a vaccine is right around the corner,” he said.
Friedrichs added that chloroquine is being given to members of the military suffering from COVID-19.
“That is one of the drugs that’s being tested; there is a trial ongoing right now with chloroquine,” he said. “We are not widely distributing it to everybody in the military.”
The Department of Defense reported that as of 5 a.m. Monday, 2,346 personnel were suffering from the coronavirus, while 176 had recovered and six have died.
The statistics include 1,435 members of the military, 398 civilians, 336 dependents, and 177 contractors. The service most affected has been the Navy, with 431 sailors testing positive, including 173 on the ill-fated aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt whose captain, one of those infected, was dismissed Thursday for writing a letter pleading for support and sending it to dozens through an unclassified system.
The letter has caused upheaval across the Navy, first with a public airing of the Roosevelt crisis in the San Francisco Chronicle after the letter was leaked, followed by Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly’s colorful defense of his firing to hundreds of sailors stranded in Guam.
In that defense, Modly allegedly called the beloved commander’s actions “stupid,” while saying he fully expected the Roosevelt’s crew to hate him for sacking their leader.
Hoffman Monday declined to comment on the Roosevelt ordeal or Modly’s alleged comments to sailors in Guam, saying he had yet to discuss the issue with Secretary Esper.
Meanwhile, some 2,000 of the 4,800 sailors have disembarked from the ship, about 60 percent of the crew, and have taken up residence at hotels on the island.
Both Hoffman and Friedrichs stressed department efforts to help fight the coronavirus on the homefront, declaring that 5 million N95 masks had gone to New York and another 5 million to a number of states including Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, Washington, Virginia, and New Jersey.
The Pentagon said 40,000 service members are engaged in the COVID effort including 4,000 medical personnel.
