New York’s Health Officials Continue to Quit as Cuomo’s COVID-19 Power Trip Grows

New York’s Health Officials Continue to Quit as Cuomo’s COVID-19 Power Trip Grows

A New York Times report revealed that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo lost nine top health officials in recent months as his power trip and ego has grown when it comes to COVID-19.

Cuomo displayed his ego last Friday: “When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts because I don’t.”

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker has not left. He attends Cuomo’s press conferences.

But the state lost Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, medical director in the division of epidemiology, and Dr. Jill Taylor, head of Wadsworth laboratory. The number two person at the Health Department took another job. Another one “is expected to leave” soon.

Zucker’s deputy resigned at the end of summer.

The health officials grew frustrated after they had to find out COVID-19 policy changes during Cuomo’s conferences:

That was what happened with the vaccine plan, when state health officials were blindsided by the news that the rollout would be coordinated locally by hospitals.

But it also occurred earlier with revisions in a host of state rules from the fate of indoor dining and businesses like gyms to capacity limits on social gatherings, according to a person with direct experience inside the department.

Earlier in the pandemic, the health officials were often informed about criteria for who was eligible to be tested for the virus — for example, an expansion to include essential workers like transit workers, police and firefighters — from Cuomo news conferences, the person said.

The tensions boiled over after Cuomo decided to use his vaccine plan instead of the one health officials made:

In the fall, Mr. Cuomo shelved vaccine distribution plans that top state health officials had been drawing up, one person with knowledge of the decision said. The plans had relied in part on years of preparations at the local level — an outgrowth of bioterrorism fears following Sept. 11 — and on experience dispensing vaccine through county health departments during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009.

As a result, local officials across the state complained that their efforts to vaccinate were undercut by the Cuomo plan.

“Wait a minute, why are we not doing this?” Anthony J. Picente Jr., a Republican who is county executive in upstate Oneida County, said he remembered thinking.

The State health department hoped officials could “expand a system used for childhood vaccinations, in which the city is able to order doses directly from the federal government.”

Cuomo said no. He told President Donald Trump’s administration “to work only with the state.”

Instead, Cuomo worked with “hospital executives, outside consultants and a top hospital lobbyist.”

His plan made it hard for cities to establish vaccination sites. The state chose the Greater New York Hospital Association as the “regional vaccination hub in New York City” instead of the Health Department.

The association is”a trade group with a multimillion-dollar lobbying arm that had been a major donor to the governor’s causes.”

The City University of New York, Epidemiology Professor Dr. Dennis Nash, described the move as a “big mistake.”

“To put hospitals in charge of a public health initiative – for which they have no public health mandate, or the skills, experience or perspective to manage one – was a huge mistake, and I have no doubt that’s what introduced the delays,” Dr. Nash told The New York Times.

It probably did:

The approach included narrow eligibility rules and suffered from a lack of urgency by some hospitals. That led to fewer doses being administered in the early weeks, followed by abrupt shifts in policy that created a kind of free-for-all among those searching for vaccine appointments, according to interviews with more than two dozen current and former health officials, county leaders, vaccination experts and elected officials.

“The governor’s approach in the beginning seemed to go against the grain in terms of what the philosophy was about how to do this,” said Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, a former deputy commissioner at New York City’s Health Department who often served as an incident commander during emergencies. “It did seem to negate 15 to 20 years of work.”

A former official said morale at the Health department “certainly was and continues to be at an all-time low.”

Another one told the Times that the Health Department had high morale in other emergencies because the “officials felt that their talent and experience were valued.” But “the opposite happened” during this pandemic.

Cuomo has faced a lot of criticism lately. A report from New York Attorney General Letitia James’s caused Cuomo’s outburst on Friday. It showed that his policies might have killed more grandmas than everyone initially thought.

What did he have to say about the Times’ report?

“If Times reporters think I push hospitals too hard and local governments too hard, I say I’m a fighter for the people of New York and I believe I’m saving lives,” he retorted.

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