It’s Time to Resurrect the Airship Hospitals

An idea devised to beat the tuberculosis pandemic 100 years ago could apply to coronavirus

Illustration: Dalbert Vilarino

In response to the coronavirus crisis, China constructed not one but two new medical facilities in Wuhan in just 10 days. Between January 24 and February 3, it transformed undeveloped land into more than half a million square feet of medically equipped hospital space with 2,600 beds. From the frenzied dance of red, blue, and yellow loaders to the graceful sweep of cranes snapping prefab units into place, a time-lapse video created by the BBC condenses the modern engineering marvel into one captivating minute. It wasn’t China’s first hospital-building rodeo: During the height of the SARS epidemic in 2003, China built a 1,000-bed facility outside Beijing in one week.

But the new hospitals failed to keep the virus in check, and now dozens of communities around the world face the imperative to quarantine and treat patients at scale without proper facilities. In Kirkland, Washington, for instance, the Seattle Times reports that county executives have signed an emergency declaration “to buy a motel where patients can recover in isolation.”