New York City's health commissioner has resigned. Dr. Oxiris Barbot cited a "deep disappointment"with Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
In Barbot's resignation email to de Blasio, she says, “I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been.”
New York City Council Health Chair Mark Levine took to Twitter after Barbot's departuresaying, "The departure of Dr. Oxiris Barbot as New York City’s Health Commissioner is a grave blow to the fight for public health here in NYC."
She's not the only one to tangle with de Blasio... Other New York health officials have clashed with the mayor over his decision to make the public hospital system responsible for contact tracing.
The mayor suggested his relationship with the health commissioner has been deteriorating rapidly, telling reporters, “It had been clear certainly in recent days that it was time for a change.” De Blasio added, “We need an atmosphere of unity, of common purpose.”Barbot has been replaced by Dr. Dave Choksi, who had been working in the city's hospital system.
