U.S. Air Force medics continue deployments to civilian hospitals and care facilities

While the nation is seeing a decline in COVID-19 cases, hospitals and other facilities across the country are still reeling.

At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, nearly 1,000 U.S. Air Force active duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard medics are serving in civilian hospitals, care facilities, and other public institutions. The Air Force Medical Service has continued to step up as part of the federal COVID-19 response, working alongside other military departments and federal agencies.

The Air Force has upwards of 24 active duty and Reserve teams currently deployed across the country, made up of pulmonologists, trauma nurses, respiratory therapist and medical technicians. Civilian medical facilities and other institutions in 34 states are also receiving support from ANG medics.

"As military medics, it is our duty to go where our nation calls us, and that means continuing our COVID-19 mission," said Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Robert Miller. "We ask a lot of our medics, who have played an integral role in the joint fight against COVID-19, working across federal agencies, military departments and the entire health care system."

One of the recent deployments included the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, a premier medical center that both Ohioans and the nation relies on for elite specialty medical care. Like other hospitals, COVID-19 surges have impacted the Cleveland Clinic staff.

"A lot of their staff have been stretched very thin taking care of these very sick COVID patients and it has also effected their ability to do their normal mission to take in transfers and specialty care from around Ohio," said Maj. Peter Johnson, internal medicine physician assigned to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. "We are here in a variety of ways, as physicians, as nurses, and respiratory therapists."

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Dr. Chistopher Whinney, department chair for hospital medicine, and Maj. Peter Johnson, an internal medicine physician assigned to Joint Base Andrews, Md., discuss their experiences providing support to COVID response operations at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, Jan. 20, 2022. U.S. Northern Command, through U.S. Army North, remains committed to providing flexible Department of Defense support to the whole-of-government COVID response. (Video by U.S. Army Spc. Ashleigh Maxwell)

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