# Why isn’t Southern California getting more help? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [January 3, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560 "2021-01-03T07:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560/1 "2021-01-03T07:41:17Z")
From everything I see, Southern California is becoming overwhelmed by the pandemic. There are reports of hospitals putting patients in chapels and gift shops. What I haven’t heard about are field hospitals being constructed, hospital ships being deployed etc. I realize that a lot of this created excess capacity earlier this year was never actually needed but we are in an expected upswing with a more contagious variant. I also do realize that shortage of personnel to staff additional sites may be a problem but we can’t even worry about personnel if there are no sites. Why not at minimum get a military hospital ship in there to take some of the pressure off? What am I missing? Is it being done and just not widely reported? ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560/2 "2021-01-03T08:05:35Z")
I don’t have any answers to your “why,” but here’s some details on specific aid that is and isn’t being supplied. Here’s an LA Times (letters) piece on the USNS Mercy, which is currently dry-docked in Portland. Apparently Governor Newsom hasn’t requested its return yet; LA Councilwoman Hahn has requested he make such a request. [Opinion: The Mercy hospital ship is in Portland. Readers want it back in L.A.](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-02/mercy-hospital-ship-in-portland-readers-want-it-back-in-l-a) On the other hand, the Army Corps of Engineers is apparently going to help fix aging and overloaded oxygen-delivery systems at LA County hospitals: ['We're running out of ambulances'; county reports 15,701 new COVID-19 cases as surge continues • Long Beach Post News](https://lbpost.com/news/ambulances-running-out-la-county-covid-numbers) ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560/3 "2021-01-03T08:15:53Z")
There’s some military personnel going to California. > **[75 Military Doctors And Nurses Deploy to California Hospitals in COVID-19 Surge](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/12/29/75-military-doctors-and-nurses-deploy-california-hospitals-covid-19-surge.html)** > > About 75 Air Force and Army doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have deployed to four California hospitals. > [@](#): > > About 75 [Air Force](http://www.military.com/air-force) and [Army](http://www.military.com/army) doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have deployed to four California hospitals struggling to cope with a surge in the state’s COVID-19 cases. > > At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Army North, the Joint Force Land Component Command of U.S. Northern Command, is overseeing the [deployment](https://www.military.com/deployment)s to back up overworked California hospital staff, according to a release. I’m not sure if this is the same thing but more specifically to LA anyway. [This is noted in **snoe** ’s post.] > **[Six overtaxed Los Angeles County hospitals to get Army engineers’ help](https://www.dailynews.com/2021/01/01/six-overtaxed-los-angeles-county-hospitals-to-get-army-engineers-help/)** > > Experts will assist with oxygen-delivery systems as soon as Saturday, Jan. 2 > [@](#): > > The state will deploy U.S. Army experts as soon as Saturday, Jan. 2, to evaluate and and upgrade oxygen-delivery systems at six older Los Angeles County hospitals overwhelmed by the [unprecedented number of coronavirus patients](https://www.dailybreeze.com/2020/12/31/as-coronavirus-deaths-mount-mortuaries-are-backed-up-and-hospitals-are-diverting-bodies-to-l-a-countys-coroner/) with serious respiratory issues. Then there’s some stimulus money that people are talking about. But I don’t know if that’s specifically for Southern CA or the entire State. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560/4 "2021-01-03T10:17:48Z")
It’s good to hear that they are getting military staff and help with oxygen. It sounds like I am not the only one concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560/5 "2021-01-03T11:32:07Z")
Good news. I’ve been hearing about the issues. I’m glad that part of the federal government is stepping up. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isn-t-southern-california-getting-more-help/929560/6 "2021-01-18T20:56:04Z")
There are so many bodies stacked up in Los Angeles, the country air pollution board has authorized crematoria to start burning more bodies than they had been allowed,