COVID-19: U.S. Military Response To-Date

America is currently engaged in a literal fight for our lives. The deadly coronavirus continues to rage throughout the land, with the projected peak in deaths not yet reached (as of 4-5-20), and the prediction that this next week could be the worst one yet, in terms of virus-related fatalities across the nation.

The United States military is helping in many ways, from deploying the Navy’s two, huge hospital ships (designed, as you many know, for trauma treatment, but not for infectious diseases) to New York City and Los Angeles;  to Army assistance in converting existing structures into temporary hospitals for non-infectious care (relieving some of the load off existing hospitals and staff engaged in the treatment of coronavirus patients);  to Army ability to deploy fully-equipped and medical-procedure-capable field hospitals (which also include intensive-care unit beds, but again, not designed for infectious disease patients, but rather to take pressure off of those facilities engaged in that fight);  and in addition, our military branches have been, from the start, delivering DoD ventilators, masks, and other protective equipment to the federal government for distribution, as needed.

The U.S. Army offers unique and proven infectious disease research expertise proving to be of great importance, and need, in this current fight.  Under the leadership of the Army’s Medical Research and Development Command resides the highly respected Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), located at Fort Detrick (MD).

The researchers at the Fort Detrick lab complex have already received a sample of this particular coronavirus.  Once sufficiently replicated in size, scientists there will be able to dig deeper into treatment and vaccine possibilities.  We can be certain that such work is already well underway there. And lest there be any question about the Fort Detrick research expertise in this highly specialized field, you should know that Army scientists there did extensive work, and played a leading role toward solutions, during the eras of the deadly Ebola, SARS, and Zika viruses.  This Army team of scientists is recognized as a world leader in the research of infectious diseases.

The Army’s Medical Research and Development Command laboratories teams are working in close coordination with several of America’s top pharmaceutical development companies as they all work, as rapidly as feasible, to find effective treatment(s) for those suffering from the effects of coronavirus.  Just as their work continues to find a truly effective vaccine.

Speaking about the Army research team at Fort Detrick, Army Chief of Staff, General James McConville, expressed his compliments and confidence in the work being done at this outstanding facility. Said the General: “This is the frontline of the battle against coronavirus.  The heroes of this fight are gonna be some of the people here. The scientists that are working to the find the vaccinations, the scientists that are working to find the drugs for treatment, the scientists that are aggressively increasing the capacity of the testing capability. And then all the medical professionals, who (with the scientists) are gonna defeat this virus.  We’re extremely proud of what they all are doing.”

And just yesterday (4-5-20), Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced this military assistance update: “What we plan on doing now is to point 1,100 additional doctors and nurses and other medical professionals to New York. The bulk of them will go to the Javits Center, and then as of late yesterday, we agreed to deploy a few hundred of them to 11 New York City hospitals that are also seeing a deficiency when it comes to medial staff. We will soon be taking over the Javits Center – 2,500 bed capacity – to show you how all in we are.  The U.S. military will soon be running the largest hospital in the United States.”

Our thanks to these great Americans, our research scientists, and our dedicated medical professionals caring directly for patients, all of whom are working tirelessly, whether uniformed or civilian, to efficiently solve this enormous crisis that is so severely impacting the health of America’s citizens, and ultimately, the very economic health of our nation.

Fort Detrick USAMRIID prior research via abcnews.go.com, Luis Martinez & Rachel Scott, 3-20-20; USAMRIID world leader standing via abcnews.go.com, Luis Martinez & Rachel Scott; USAMRDC works with other pharmaceutical companies via stripes.com, Heather Mongilio, 3-4-20; General McConville via army.mil, U.S. Army, 3-20-20; Defense Secretary Esper via nypost.com, Mark More, 4-5-20).