City lawmakers may get their first chance Friday to grill embattled health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot about the callous comment she made when blowing off a request for masks by the NYPD, The Post has learned.
The City Council has asked Barbot to answer questions about the city’s contact tracing program during an oversight hearing — but she has not yet said whether she will show up, a spokeswoman said.
“She’s got some serious explaining to do, not only on her despicable comment directed at our police, but on her past comments in February and March that downplayed the seriousness of this pandemic,” said Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens).
Her appearance comes in the wake of The Post’s exclusive about a telephone conversation Barbot had in late March with a high-ranking NYPD official about surgical masks for cops as the coronavirus crisis mounted.
According to sources, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan asked Barbot for 500,000 masks but she said she could only provide 50,000, the sources said.
“I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops,” Barbot said, according to sources. “I need them for others.”
A spokesman for Barbot did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
A DOH spokesman acknowledged that during the height of the outbreak while hospitals were struggling to save patients, “there was a heated exchange between the two where things were said out of frustration but no harm was wished on anyone.”
Barbot “apologized for her contribution to the exchange,” the spokesman said.
Several elected leaders and police unions have called for Barbot to resign or be fired.
“I stand with the men and women in blue who continue to keep us safe. Dr. Barbot’s irresponsible rhetoric in March, compounded with several missteps throughout this pandemic put many lives in danger. Her contempt for our police officers is intolerable, and I reiterate my call to have her fired immediately,” said Holden, who first called for Barbot’s ouster in April.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Barbot have clashed over the city’s response to the coronavirus crisis since the beginning of the pandemic.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson called for Friday’s hearing last week, after de Blasio said the public hospital system would oversee the massive testing and tracing program instead of Barbot’s agency, which has handled similar programs in the past.
At the time, Johnson called de Blasio’s decision to move the program to Health + Hospitals “a distraction when we need to be focused on battling this virus,” Johnson said.