# Why isn't Covid handled like a War? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471 "2020-04-10T02:11:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/1 "2020-04-10T02:11:47Z")
The US has over 2-million in uniform, commmitted to giving their lives in time of danger. They’re trained and well-equipped for mobility and logistics, and could quickly set up field hospitals. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/2 "2020-04-10T02:41:26Z")
It’s hard to hit only the virus with a bullet. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/3 "2020-04-10T02:49:22Z")
Soldiers usually have no medical training, so they aren’t much use. Besides the big issue isn’t lack of personnel, but lack of ventilators and test kits. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/4 "2020-04-10T02:52:16Z")
Because you can’t shoot it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/5 "2020-04-10T03:03:37Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The US has over 2-million in uniform, commmitted to giving their lives in time of danger. They’re trained and well-equipped for mobility and logistics, and could quickly set up field hospitals. They have set up field hospitals. What else would you have them do? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/6 "2020-04-10T05:04:41Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The US has over 2-million in uniform, commmitted to giving their lives in time of danger. They’re trained and well-equipped for mobility and logistics, and could quickly set up field hospitals. The number of American soldiers who are specifically good at this isn’t two million. It’s a small fraction of that. So do you deploy them? Well, the thing is, they exist to serve the other soldiers. What happens if those people have to deploy? If there’s a war? They need their medical support team. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/7 "2020-04-10T10:53:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Why isn’t Covid handled like a War? Because Trump. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/8 "2020-04-10T12:24:33Z")
It’s so crazy it just might work! If they shoot all the people sick with Coronavirus, the number of Coronavirus deaths could plummet overnight! ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/9 "2020-04-10T12:40:50Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The US has over 2-million in uniform, commmitted to giving their lives in time of danger. They’re trained and well-equipped for mobility and logistics, and could quickly set up field hospitals. Not just that, a lot of people with training in science and biology could be helping too at things like manufacturing tests, interpreting tests, working on therapies, but they really can’t find opportunities to help. However I don’t know how much help the military itself can do. The job of the military is to use overwhelming force to take over geographic areas, and the average soldier is barely into adulthood. A pandemic calls for a different response. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/10 "2020-04-10T13:53:15Z")
It is being handled the way republicans handle a war. After all, Democrats won 2 world wars. The republicans lost Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/11 "2020-04-10T13:54:43Z")
As others have said, the U.S. military is really, really good at dealing with things you can shoot, bomb, or fire a missile at. In recent memory we beat the government of Iraq twice and the government of Afghanistan once. But then you look at our bungling in Somalia- the fundamental problem is you can’t shoot a famine. Our problem at the moment isn’t lack of beds, it’s lack of protective equipment and testing kits. Maybe the military could stage a commando raid on the Malaysian factory that make most of the world’s gloves? ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/12 "2020-04-10T13:56:01Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > It is being handled the way republicans handle a war. > > After all, Democrats won 2 world wars. The republicans lost Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I never knew Saddam Hussein was the ruler of the U.S. now that we lost the Iraq war. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/13 "2020-04-10T13:58:30Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > It is being handled the way republicans handle a war. > > After all, Democrats won 2 world wars. The republicans lost Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. What no love for Eisenhower? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/14 "2020-04-10T14:17:00Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The number of American soldiers who are specifically good at this isn’t two million. It’s a small fraction of that. > > So do you deploy them? Well, the thing is, they exist to serve the other soldiers. What happens if those people have to deploy? If there’s a war? They need their medical support team. Also a lot of the military with medical backgrounds are reservists with civilian jobs, so they’re already on the front lines addressing the crisis. And also the military health system (like those hospital ships) is really set up for trauma and battlefield injuries, not a pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/15 "2020-04-10T14:17:30Z")
The military could enforce curfews and even social distancing. It could also bar travel, like section off NYC. It’s the wheat and weeds parable, harm to the progress of the virus will be harm to the people. The powers that be haven’t seen the reason to raise it to that level. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/16 "2020-04-10T14:20:49Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > I never knew Saddam Hussein was the ruler of the U.S. now that we lost the Iraq war. No, you are correct. Iraq was a smashing victory for the USA. Bush even said so! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/17 "2020-04-10T14:28:15Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > As others have said, the U.S. military is really, really good at dealing with things you can shoot, bomb, or fire a missile at. In recent memory we beat the government of Iraq twice and the government of Afghanistan once. But then you look at our bungling in Somalia- the fundamental problem is you can’t shoot a famine. You also left out our bungling in Iraq and Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/18 "2020-04-10T14:32:16Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Because you can’t shoot it. [Sure you can.](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cells.png) ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/19 "2020-04-10T14:40:23Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > The military could enforce curfews and even social distancing. It could also bar travel, like section off NYC. It’s the wheat and weeds parable, harm to the progress of the virus will be harm to the people. The powers that be haven’t seen the reason to raise it to that level. National Guard and State Militia troops could be mobilized by the governors to do that, but I’m pretty sure involving the US Army, Marines, etc. to enforce laws would violate the Posse Comitatus and/or Insurrection Acts. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471/20 "2020-04-10T14:47:19Z")
I think the real question is, why do we maintain an army of \>1 million soldiers ready to fight a war, but not an army of doctors ready to fight a pandemic? I mean, of course we have lots of doctors, but we only have enough to provide medical care during non-pandemic times. We don’t have doctors, nurses and paramedics in reserve, being paid just to train for future disasters and wide-scale emergencies. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-covid-handled-like-a-war/851471.md?page=2)