President Donald Trump hasn’t exactly won a lot of new fans during his attempts to respond to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has insisted upon military assistance for locales like his city that are getting hit hard by the virus, but mostly, military assistance has been hard to come by at best, although Trump did apparently order the deployment of a hospital ship to the NYC area. During an MSNBC appearance this Friday, de Blasio hammered Trump and insisted that he’s failing.
De Blasio’s city has reached the point of around 4,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and counting, and the mayor has called for additional military assistance before. Local media noted that he has been “demanding the federal government mobilize the military to help in the response efforts.” During his MSNBC appearance, he commented:
‘It’s driving me crazy. I know the quality and the devotion of the United States military. If they got the order this hour to mobilize and get resources to the places in this country that are suffering, they would give it their all. And they have the best logistical capacity of any organization in America. They have extraordinary medical personnel.’
Cities like New York City, Seattle, and others could definitely use the assistance. As cases balloon, medical systems get only more strained. As of Thursday night, the Coronavirus outbreak in New York City alone had already driven 554 hospitalizations and 169 admissions to intensive care units, and the number of cases — and hospitalizations — are expected to increase “exponentially,” local media noted. Across New York state as a whole, the hospitalization rate has hit around 19 percent, meaning almost one in five people who contracted the disease had to be admitted.
And de Blasio wants the military to help with the concurrent issues. He insisted this Friday, in reference to Trump:
‘The order has not been given by the commander-in-chief because he’s not acting like a commander-in-chief. He doesn’t know how, and he should get the hell out of the way and let the military do its job.’
Watch below:
NYC Mayor de Blasio calls for military action amid coronavirus pandemic:
"The order has not been given by the commander-in-chief because he's not acting like a commander-in-chief. He doesn't know how, and he should get the hell out of the way and let the military do its job." pic.twitter.com/HDFtCNXETU
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 20, 2020
Other leaders have also requested military assistance. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) requested a hospital ship for the Los Angeles area. In his request, he noted that projections suggested that as many as 56 percent of Californians could contract the Coronavirus, and doing the math quickly suggests the astronomical strain that infection rate could put on already stressed healthcare systems there and around the state and country.
In an attempt to stem the spread of the virus, leaders like Newsom have already been taking drastic measures. On Thursday, he issued a “stay-at-home” order for all tens of millions of Californians, which had effects like the forced closure of non-essential businesses. De Blasio has suggested that a similar order could be on the way for his own city, although it’s unclear when exactly that may emerge. Cases there, notably enough, are higher than the total in California, at least according to official tallies. NYC has some 4,000, while California had just over 1,000 as of late Friday morning.
