This archive report was first published on 4 August 2020.
Health Commissioner Resigns Over Coronavirus Response ¶
Dr. Oxiris Barbot, New York City's health commissioner, resigned on August 4, 2020, in protest over Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
Her departure came after escalating tensions between City Hall and top Health Department officials, which began at the start of the city's outbreak in March.
Dr. Barbot expressed her deep disappointment in a resignation email, stating that the Health Department's expertise was not used to the degree it could have been during the outbreak.
She emphasized that the city's experts are world-renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance, and response work, and that they should have been at the strategic center of the response, not in the background.
Dr. Barbot's resignation could renew questions about Mayor de Blasio's handling of the response to the outbreak, which devastated the city in the spring, killing over 20,000 residents.
Public health officials have bristled at the mayor's decision to strip the Health Department of its responsibility for contact tracing and give it instead to the public hospital system, known as Health + Hospitals.
Mayor de Blasio quickly moved to replace Dr. Barbot, appointing a new health commissioner, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, a former senior leader at Health + Hospitals.
