This hospital ship was meant to house non-covid patients. It's meant as surge capacity for the NY hospital system. Of course it isn't full yet. Of course it isn't full of covid patients right now, it isn't ever supposed to be full of covid patients. It's not a joke. The joke is that the Ny Times of all places let this ridiculous article go to print when a simple search, or even a summary of the DAILY press conferences where this is covered would have explained the situation.

If NY thinks it's a joke, and it isn't being useful by being there, then NY should be calling for it to be sent somewhere else. I bet the 20 patients who are there now sure are happy to have a hospital that isn't infected with the virus[1] right now.

As a side note: this brand of journalism is disgusting to me. Articles like this absolutely do not help anyone. You can lump this sort of thing right in with the people who ask EVERY SINGLE DAY why we didn't start acting sooner. EVERY DAY they ask this at the press conference. People want to know things like when they can get tested, if their parents are going to die, or if they're going to be able to pay for food this week. But every day they waste this precious time we get with these experts asking stupid self-serving questions like why we didn't start sooner. What possible answer to the question could help any of the very real existential problems Americans and their families are facing right now?

[1]: There needs to be an easier name than "sars cov2" for this. It only creates confusion where people either choose to call it "coronavirus" or "covid".