New York City’s health commissioner is stepping down while criticizing the De Blasio administration.
In her resignation letter, Dr. Oxiris Barbot says she leaves with deep disappointment that the health department expertise was not used to the degree it should have been and that the department was in the background.
She appears to be referring to Mayor de Blasio handing the coronavirus test and trace program to the public hospital system instead of the health department. De Blasio says there were different viewpoints with the doctor but does not regret that decision.
“Health and Hospitals which is a huge operational organization made sense as the home for something this big and unprecedented. But it’s never about one agency. It’s about everyone being brought into common cause.”
The mayor says it became clear there was a need to move forward.