NYC health commissioner conspicuously absent from de Blasio briefing
City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot was glaringly absent from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily coronavirus briefing Friday when he announced the public hospital system would oversee a major testing and tracing program, instead of her agency that’s handled similar programs in the past.
Despite reported tensions between the mayor and his health commissioner over COVID-19 strategy, Barbot had been a regular fixture at the mayor’s virtual press conferences.
She was not on the conference call Friday as de Blasio praised her colleague, Dr. Mitchel Katz head of NYC Health + Hospitals, for working “miracles” at 11 public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When you have an inspired operational leader, you know, pass the ball to them is my attitude,” de Blasio.
“Everything at Health + Hospitals has been based on speed, and intensity, and precision, and they’ve done an amazing job,” de Blasio said.
“So, that is why it makes sense as we build this next effort to use that great leadership and that great organizational capacity,” the mayor said about the new Testing and Tracing Corps that will hire 2,500 “public-health foot soldiers” and conduct 50,000 tests a day over the summer to contain the spread of the virus and allow the city to reopen.
Ted Long, vice president of ambulatory care at Health + Hospitals, will run the corps.
Asked why Barbot wasn’t on the call de Blasio said, “Everyday we put together a different lineup.”
Reps for Barbot, who has generally been at the daily briefings, referred The Post to the mayor’s remarks and declined to comment further.
The Health Department previously ran test and trace operations during the measles outbreak and the AIDS epidemic.
De Blasio said he didn’t care if health officials were unhappy about losing the job to another agency.
“This is not about happiness. This is about effectiveness,” he said.
The Post previously reported on de Blasio’s toxic relationship with Barbot and other health officials for ignoring their advice and micromanaging the city’s coronavirus response.
De Blasio’s decision to take the testing program away from the Health Department sparked outrage from several elected officials including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
“This plan raises a lot of alarm bells,” Johnson said.
“Contact tracing is a core function of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and has been for years. This is a distraction when we need to be focused on battling this virus. The New York City Council will hold a hearing to get to the bottom of this and chart the best path forward,” Johnson said.