University of chicago thank you. We will get two live now to the white house for todays coronavirus response. Commanding officer of that vessel, good morning, captain and thank you for joining us. Bit about the ship and what it is doing right now. The mercy is the 1000 bed hospital here in los angeles to ask to act as a release valve for local hospitals. Host you are not taking covid19 patients on the ship, is that correct . Guest that is correct. Host what is the process for getting patients on that ship . The hospital wants to send patients, they call the medical alert center. The referring physician speaks to one of our physicians and then we bring the patient. Host what is your take on this story . We have read that a member of the mercy crew has tested positive for coronavirus. What can you tell us about the story and your level of concern . Guest we are all concerned about coronavirus. Werethat crewmember, we able to get them off of the ship quickly. We did a contact investigation. Then we got those folks interviewed as well. To verify that they were not infected. The are quarantining off of ship for 14 days. Host what else do you do to keep the rest of the ship safe . Are whate fundamentals the cdc has put out. We encourage handwashing, we have Hand Sanitizer throughout the ship. Distancinge social to the maximum extent possible. Although im not wearing my mask this minute, we are all wearing cloth masks around other people. What is your biggest challenge in dealing with the operating of the ship . Guest honestly, i would not say that we have a challenge. We are ready to receive from the local hospitals here we have had a slow but steady full of patients. It has given us a chance to improve our process. We are ready and waiting. Host what kind of procedures are being done . Guest we have a wide range of Surgical Specialties available. So far the procedures have fallen under the realm of surgery. For instance, we removed and appendix. We removed a gallbladder. Some bone that was dying and needed to be removed for serious infection. Those sorts of things. Our medical specialists are providing both Critical Care and care on our medical ward. Host are you expect your numbers to rise in any significant way . Guest i think that is hard to predict. The is dependent on hospitals here in los angeles, the degree to which they increase their capacity. Receive, and i think we are ready to take in the number patients everyday. We are here to act as a hostile i partner for hospitals. Comfort, yourthe sister ship is in new york. See a situation where you will need to start doing that . Guest at this point that is not our mission. If that isties think a requirement they have, they will engage fema. Willma agrees, then they talk to the department of defense to find out if that is the right mechanism. Its how did the mercy get name . Give us a sense of the past missions of the vessel. Thet i want to say that name is seven explanatory. Selfexplanatory. A hospital ship in particular, was the power past sins have been called dealer security cooperation. That is when we travel to companies countries in the pacific rim, bringing patients aboard the ship to demonstrate what we feel like is the standard of care here in the United States with the idea being we are trying to improve the Health System capacity. Captain john rotrucks Commanding Officer of the usns mercy. Thanks for your time this morning and good luck. Guest . Thank you. Host thanks a lot, alan. They are paying to them cant pay their bills. We have to figure outwe are glau here. Tell us about how your strict is doing right now and washington at large. We are hearing some promising signs, at least from what we are reading. Guest from a health care perspective, i think the signs are promising. Days went together, but it was a little more than two weeks ago