Is using naval hospital ships a good idea?

I don't debate that we do run a risk of a COVID-19 outbreak on the ship. However, what are the alternatives? No additional assets being brought to bear in the fight? That's not helpful in relieving the stress. Mobilizing a military field hospital? That takes more time than moving the ship up the coastline. Constructing new civilian hospitals? That takes even more time. Given the circumstances, using the ship was likely the best short-term approach.

I think the primary differences between the Navy hospital and the cruise ship are that a) the hospital patient population is less mobile than the cruise line passenger population and b) the Navy hospital is more equipped and better trained to manage/contain an outbreak than a private cruise liner. Both lead to a lower probability of an outbreak spreading throughout the ship. Does it eliminate the threat? No, but it does reduce the probability of it occurring. The same thing could happen within a brick-and-mortar hospital.

Yes and no. People focus on the ship. It's an asset usually docked but mostly loaded with supplies. It isn't a pandemic fighter. It does take load off shoreside hospitals which can focus more effort elsewhere. The big "no" is the staff that gets pulled to man it. Services at the Naval Hospitals they come from are curtailed. I remember coming back from the badlands needing knee surgery. Nope, they're out on the Mercy. Go to Army Madigan at Ft Lewis. Oh, you need the surgery now? You're really a bother but just to make you go away, we'll OK one visit to University of Washington Sports Medicine. Oh, the Pro from Dover says you need surgery now? You really are a bother but OK. You're Navy and we really don't want to take care of you so we'll let that guy who opened his mouth do it. Like the anal focus on ventilators and none on qualified staff to use them and subsequently perform bronchoscopies (the real fix to keep you breathing), generally too much is made of a single ship being somewhere. 12 ORs is nice, but NYC has hundreds. Nice optics though. How much of a dent does that really make? Navy personnel are getting reduced services as we speak with both ships out. Now the CinC wants two more ships. And where do those personnel come from when the ships show up years from now? The ships are critical when they are forward taking care of us. They are an albatross when they are diverted to do something else.

They aren't taking COVID patients. They will be taking Critical ICU patients to open up ICU's in the hospitals for COVID cases. The hospital ship are well qualified to do this type of stuff.