Don’t we have some other Carriers?
Sure, we have 10. Of the 10, 2 are offline in the shipyards in overhaul leaving 8. On average 1/3rd are deployed, 1/3rd are just coming off deployment and the last 1/3rd are in workups for their next deployment. You’ll notice that 8 doesn’t divide by 3 evenly. Also, the other potential replacement carrier would have had greater exposure to COVID-19 at that point.
Two in the Indian Ocean. The Reagan is undergoing scheduled repairs, so while home ported in Japan, it’s not available. The rest are in either San Diego or Puget Sound area, one of which would be designated a surge carrier in my day anyway.