Across the country this scenario will continue to play out. Some cities will erupt into hot spots while others nearby wait at the ready. To save lives, we must all share the load. The federal government must lead the way by enlisting hospitals to report open beds and calling on the U.S. military, with it fleet of trucks and helicopters, to aid with the transfer of patients.

To be clear, sending equipment and personnel to hospitals in crisis is vitally important. It will remain so. But supplementing these efforts with the transfer of patients between hospitals will better match patient demand with health care supply. To save lives, it is better to have more hospitals running at peak capacity than a few bearing the brunt. Shouldn’t we mobilize the existing capacity at places like Johns Hopkins Hospital — which is already staffed and equipped for this kind of care — before relying on makeshift hospitals set up at places like the Javits Center?

Of course, transferring a sick patient requires thoughtful and deliberate planning. If the patient is critically ill, the challenge is greater yet, often requiring helicopter transport and flight paramedics. The efforts could start with coronavirus-negative patients — such as people with acute or chronic heart failure or drug overdoses — while the difficult task of transferring contagious patients is more carefully coordinated. Once those patients are transferred, I.C.U. beds should open up for coronavirus patients.

For transfers to meaningfully supplement local response, they would need to be substantial in scale — perhaps in the thousands of patients. They could occur by ground or air, as most large hospitals have a helipad.

It might seem harsh to move Covid-19 patients far from their families and friends. But many hospitals have already closed their doors to visitors, so communication between patients and their loved ones is happening now via phone or internet.

Some will say that hospitals should handle transfers between themselves. However, as hospitals hunker down, they are unlikely to volunteer their beds. After all, they have their own patients, employees, public image and bottom line to look after. Understandably, the welfare of patients at other hospitals is not their first concern. These incentives and realities necessitate government leadership, and when transfers cross state lines, federal action will be required.

Others will say doing this at scale is dangerous and prohibitively expensive. But these critics, like those in 1948, underestimate our potential. Our nation’s military has the necessary combination of expertise, resources and authority to oversee and carry out the transfers. And let’s not forget, federal leadership in moving patients during a crisis is not without precedent. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, thousands of patients were flown from flooded areas to nearby facilities. The mistake then was a delay in action. We should learn from that mistake.

If we are to succeed, Mr. Trump must lead like Truman, New York must become our new Berlin, and the airlift should be ordered immediately. If we do so, once again countless lives will be saved. And a world inspired.

Michael Rose is a resident physician in internal medicine and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Sumit Agarwal is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

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