Hospitals to try and enable them to increase their capacity to care for covid19 infected patients. Host you are not taking covid19 patients on the ship, but other patients that mightve gone into the hospital elsewhere . Guest that is the that is correct. Host what is the process . Guest the hospital calls the medical center, a preexisting mechanism, to transfer patients between hospitals. We just bring the patient in so we can bring their care. The referring physician physician speaks our physician and we bring the person over. What is your take on this, i want to get your reaction, 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 . Andt we are all concerned in the case of the crewmember we were able to get them off the ship quickly. Soon as we saw the symptoms the man was in isolation. We did a contact investigation to see who had that person was in contact with, and we had those folks interviewed to verify that they were not infected through contact. They are quarantining off of the ship for 14 days. Caller host what else do you do to keep the rest of the crew safe . Guest the fundamentals at the cdc has already put out. We encourage handwashing and of Hand Sanitizer locating and have Hand Sanitizer throughout the ship. Distancinge social and we all have cloth masks when we are around other people. Host what is your biggest challenge in dealing with operating a ship and incoming patients . Guest i would not say we have a challenge. We are ready to receive from the local hospitals. Since we have, on station, we have had a steady flow of patients which will help refine and improve our process in providing their care. So i would not say we have a challenge, we are ready and waiting. Host what kind of procedures are being done . Guest so far they have all fallen under the realm of general and orthopedic surgery. For example, we had acute appendicitis where we remove the gallbladder. We have removed some bone that was dying and needed to be removed, that sort of thing. In addition our medical planningts are critical care. Host are you expecting your numbers to rise as we continue to track the cases . Guest i think that that is a difficult call to predict. It is dependent on the hospitals in los angeles and the degree to which they increase their capacity. , andll be ready to receive i think we are ready to ramp up the number of patients. We are ready to act as a partner and we will meet the demand, whatever that may be. Host we know that the comfort is in new york and the possibility of them taking covid19 patients. Do you see a situation where you need to start doing that . Guest at this point, that is not our mission. A requirement that state authorities have, they will engage fema. Then they will talk to the department of defense who decides if that is the right mechanism for helping out. Host how did the mercy give us the get its name and give us a sense of the past missions. Guest i want to say the name is selfexplanatory. As a hospital ship, in particular. Haveof our past missions been in Theater Security operation, which is when we traveled countries in the ific rim and engage inning an exchange and bring patients on the ship and demonstrate the standard of care in the united states. The idea being that we are trying to improve the health of those patients in some capacity. Captain john rotruck is Commanding Officer of the usns mercy in los angeles. Thank you a lot for your time and good luck with your mission. Host thank you. Washingtons journal, life with news and policy issues that impact you. Health and Human Services assistant secretary for human age and will talk about resources and programs available for senior citizens. The brennan centers Lauren Brooke will talk about covid19 and the u. S. Prison system. Of then, chris Government Accountability office will discuss the federal governments response. Journalshington live at 7 00 eastern this morning and watch washington journal prime on monday. Dr. Anthony fauci will be our guest live starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Taking your phone calls and questions on the coronavirus pandemic. Monday night on the communicators, American Economic celebrities project, sarah miller, on Big Tech Companies as monopolies and the impact of corporate concentration. Sarah there are a couple of strategies, are you going to sell to facebook or google. What that has done as it has warped the ability of innovators in Silicon Valley to innovate according to market needs and ipos, instead everyone is guessing of how will i develop something that facebook or google will buy. That is not necessarily we want our how we want our innovation section to function. Watch the communicators on cspan2. And now, a new jersey covid19 update. Governor phil murphy announces