And any personnel that active duty forces or the National Guard might be able to lend to the crisis would be pulled away from helping in their own communities, said top Pentagon spokesman Jonathan\u00a0Hoffman.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we are able to build tents for hospitals, we need the nurses, we need the doctors, we need the orderlies,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cThose individuals in our system would come from existing hospitals or the\u00a0Reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pentagon is looking at what kind of help it can provide to civilian agencies battling the disease, said Hoffman, but so far, the military has only been called upon to provide quarantine facilities for travelers coming from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and disembarking cruise ship and airport\u00a0passengers.<\/p>\n
Some Democrats who argue that Trump has not done enough to contain the spread of the virus \u2014\u00a0which has killed at least 68 Americans<\/a> as of Monday afternoon \u2014\u00a0have begun elevating calls for a more muscular military response to the crisis in rhetoric historically used for politically potent national crises: Both Biden and Cuomo have referred to coronavirus response efforts as a\u00a0\u201cwar.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at war with the virus,\u201d Biden said Sunday\u00a0night.<\/p>\n Those calls stand in stark contrast to some conservative lawmakers, who have questioned the severity of the crisis and encouraged constituents to ignore state, local and federal guidance calling for Americans to avoid public gatherings, especially in closed spaces as in bars and\u00a0restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy,\u201d Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News on Sunday. \u201cLet\u2019s not hurt the working people in this country \u2026 Go to your local pub.\u201d By Monday, several state governors were ordering bars, restaurants, casinos, gyms, theaters and similar establishments to close<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n So far, Democrats have not called for National Guard or other military elements to be used to enforce a growing number of rules put in place by state and local governments, such as restricting travel and mass gatherings and closing restaurants and bars. Local and national politicians have sought to avoid inflaming fears of \u201cmartial law\u201d that are circulating on some darker corners of the internet. (The National Security Council has publicly<\/a> refuted the\u00a0rumors.)<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>It is not a police activity, they are not in tanks, they are in regular vehicles. They are not armed,\u201d said<\/a> New Rochelle City Manager Charles\u00a0Strome.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease stop spreading stupid rumors about marshall [sic]<\/em> law. COMPLETELY<\/span> FALSE<\/span>,\u201d\u00a0 Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted Monday morning. \u201cWe will continue to see closings &<\/span> restrictions on hours of non-essential businesses in certain cities &<\/span> states. But that is NOT<\/span> marshall [sic]<\/em>\u00a0law.\u201d<\/p>\n Some National Guard units across the country already are helping<\/a> with voluntary screening and temperature checks at the Maryland State House, assisting<\/a> with cleaning and sanitizing efforts in the locked-down New York town of New Rochelle, and other efforts. In West Virginia, troops trained staff<\/a> at Charleston\u2019s Cabell Huntington Hospital on Wednesday in the proper use of the protective suits they might wear if they need to treat coronavirus\u00a0patients.<\/p>\n Trump on Friday declared coronavirus a national emergency under the Stafford Act<\/a>, which gives him the authority to call up the Corps of Engineers if\u00a0a state government sends a request to\u00a0the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would assign the\u00a0mission.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe the use of active duty Army Corps personnel would not violate federal law because this is a national disaster,\u201d Cuomo wrote. \u201cDoing so still won\u2019t provide enough intensive care beds, but it is our best\u00a0hope.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pentagon is \u201caware\u201d of Cuomo\u2019s suggestion, Hoffman said, but has not received a request for the Corps to do any construction. \u201cThat would be something we would look at,\u201d Hoffman said, but \u201cAt this point I think there are some other options out there,\u201d including leaning on the private\u00a0sector.<\/p>\n Trump said during a Monday afternoon press conference that the White House is considering using the Army Corps to build\u00a0hospitals.<\/p>\n The big benefit of the Defense Department is logistics and planning support,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cThose are two things that we are able to provide a lot of assistance\u00a0to.\u201d<\/p>\n Public health experts caution that it is impossible to know how many Americans will be sickened by coronavirus \u2014\u00a0making it difficult to determine how much hospital surge capacity will be needed. But some epidemiologists project that between 40 and 60 percent of 327 million Americans could become infected, and policy experts have issued<\/a> dire warnings that U.S.<\/span> hospitals may be\u00a0overwhelmed.<\/p>\n There are 5,198 hospitals in the United States, according to American Hospital Association data provided to the health-care trade publication Healthcare Dive, and 792,000 beds. Of those, 65,000 are ICU<\/span> beds. Hoffman said most of the military\u2019s hospitals are small, and only a tiny fraction of the hospital beds in the United States belong to the Department of\u00a0Defense.<\/p>\n There are also concerns about equipment supplies. A 2005 report<\/a> from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the United States would need mechanical ventilators for 740,000 patients in the event of a pandemic like the 1918 influenza pandemic. But there are only 160,000 ventilators currently available for patient use, according to an estimate<\/a> from Johns Hopkins researchers, with another 8,900 held in what\u2019s known as the Strategic National\u00a0Stockpile.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>If a Wuhan-like outbreak were to take place in a U.S.<\/span> city, even with strong social distancing and contact tracing protocols as strict as the Wuhan lockdown, hospitalization and ICU<\/span> needs from COVID<\/span>-19 patients alone may exceed current capacity,\u201d researchers from Harvard and Johns Hopkins warned in a March paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n