[ransom1538]

"Turn all your ships to hospital ships"

Dear God no. Please don't create a covid19 death ship. Covid19 has proven to be a ruthless killer on recycled air systems. It would be impossible to screen for the virus - it would certainly find it's way on board.

[dredmorbius]

There are numerous non-covid medical conditions which could benefit.

Though whether or not recreational cruise ships could be reasonably repurposed, and staffed, in time is a bit of a stretch.

[pjc50]

In that case, the best use might be the "isolate mild cases" approach: everyone who tests positive goes on the ship, even (especially) if they don't have symptoms. If they deteriorate to severe, move them to a real hospital. This has been a big part of the Wuhan campaign.

[Donald]

Repeated exposure makes covid-19 cases worse.

[barry-cotter]

I doubt that. It’s more likely to depend on the viral load you’re exposed to. Being a nurse with inadequate PPE intubating someone and being exposed to large quantities of COVID once will give the virus a head start, whereas running through a cough cloud and just barely getting enough to infect you five times over the course of an hour will give your immune system a head start.

[dirtyid]

Many medical procedures have been pushed back, a bunch of surgeons twiddling their thumbs somewhere. Might be useful to have them operate out of retrofitted cruise medical ships.

[sjg007]

The army core of engineers would have to heavily modify them. We do have hospital ships. I am not sure it'd be possible though to get negative pressure in the HVAC.. maybe.