A reasonable observer would expect a minimum level of professionalism from New York City Health Commissioner, and concern, not indifference, from the mayor. By the time they took the pandemic seriously, corona virus was running wild in the city.
By Ron Jager, INN
A reasonable observer would expect a minimum level of professionalism form New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. One wouldn’t expect that someone charged with protecting New York City’s public health would instead endanger the well-being of New Yorkers by ignoring the severe health ramifications and the very real danger of the Corona virus.
However, while most of the Democratic leadership of New York City was busy criticizing President Trump for deciding to impose travel restrictions on those entering the United States and dismissing the incoming threat of the coronavirus in February, this Health Commissioner was quoted stating the following on numerous TV interviews; “The risk to New Yorkers from coronavirus is low and … our preparedness as a city is very high.”
Barbot said this at a press conference supporting the Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Festival. “There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take a bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday [Feb. 9].”
The unprofessional behavior of New York City’s Health Commissioner, a Democratic Party appointee, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, has been labeled by many health officials as possibly criminally negligent. Under different circumstances she should have been forced to excuse herself and resign immediately pending further legal action.
Over the past few weeks as we have witnessed the snowball effect of the rate of infection of the Corona virus, New York City officials in a Democratic administration should be held accountable for increasing the “risk” for the residents of New York City. They not only egregiously dismissed the Corona Virus outbreak and Pandemic in its earlier stages, but actually encouraged unrestricted public behavior as if there was no danger of being infected, as if they knew what they were talking about.
The human cost of the Democrat’s nonchalant policy has been deadly for New Yorkers.
Had this incredulous and negligent behavior by the Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, been an isolated incident, the risk might have been contained to a minimum level. Unfortunately, Mayor Bill de Blasio also failed to shield the residents of New York City, partly through inaction but largely through indifference.
As the deadly Corona Virus emerged from China, invaded Europe and began to spread at an exponential rate throughout the world, the Trump administration was formulating national policies to deal with the high mortality rate expected from COVID-19, understanding that the situation was one of life-or-death. Yet at the same time Mayor de Blasio was busy criticizing President Trump for imposing border restrictions into the United States in an attempt to prevent the import of the Corona Virus through the airports and borders.
Mayor de Blasio’s indifference to the Corona virus threat probably contributed more to New York City becoming an epicenter of Corona virus infection in the United States more than the actions of his criminally negligent Health Commissioner. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the media at one of his many and highly effective coronavirus response press conferences that he believed New York City schools should be closed.
Mayor Bill de Blasio had consistently refused till then to shut down schools despite fellow Democrats in the tri-state demanding that he do so. De Blasio’s refusal to cancel school a week and more after most other districts in the tri-state had done so, contributed significantly to the acceleration of the outbreak of the Corona virus in New York City.
An additional de Blasio decision that contributed to the pace of the outbreak had to do with instituting a significant reduction schedule in public transportation, primarily with the New York City subway system forcing unusual crowding among subway riders who were largely unprotected. One would expect that at the same time the Mayor instituted a significant reduction in the subway schedule, he would authorize the cancellation of alternate side parking or cancel metered parking, encouraging those still working outside their home to use private cars so as to limit exposure to the potential danger of being infected on public transportation. Instead. his administration encouraged use of public transportation and continued to dis-incentivize the use of private cars. Alternate side parking was suspended only a few days ago and metered parking restrictions are still in effect as of this writing.
Mayor de Blasio’s incompetent response to the Corona virus along with his administration’s Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, most likely doomed New York City to a fate similar if not worse than Italy and Spain. De Blasio’s irresponsible and reckless delays probably cost many deaths that otherwise could have been avoided. The number of infected, hospitalized, and dead is rising at an exponential rate, meaning the worst is yet to come for New York City residents; So far, 36,221 cases of Corona infection in New York City, including 790 deaths (as of March 29th).
In recent days with social distancing and forced stay at home guidelines issued by the Federal and New York State authorities, New Yorkers should hopefully experience a major reduction in infections and deaths over the coming weeks and months. The Democratic leadership of New York City would be wise to examine their policy decisions over the past month so as to avoid repeating similar decisions that can adversely affect the good people of the City of New York.
Ron grew up in the South Bronx of New York City, making Aliyah in 1980. Served for 25 years in the IDF as a Mental Health Field Officer in operational units. Prior to retiring was Commander of the Central Psychiatric Clinic for Reserve Solders at Tel-Hashomer. Since retiring has been involved in strategic consultancy to NGO’s and communities in the Gaza Envelope on resiliency projects to assist first responders and communities. Ron has written numerous articles for outlets in Israel and abroad focusing on Israel and the Jewish world. To contact: medconf@gmail.com. Website: www.ronjager.com
Both the governor and the mayor are responsible!!!
The buck stops with!
The reaon the “speed of transmission” of the CoSARS-2 and similar infectious disease causing viruses is important that it bears on the question of how dangerous the CoSARS-2 virus (said to cause the COVID-19 disease) is. If it spreads as rapidly through a population rapidly as influenza-causing viruses and/or common cold causing viruses, then there could be many millions of people who have been infected with the virus but are either completely asymptomatic , or experienced only mild symptoms that they never reported to a doctor, and as a result were never tested to see if they had COVID-19.
If that is the case, then only a very small number of those persons infected have become seriously ill or died. And that in turn could mean that the CoSARS-e virus is not more dangerous than the better-known viruses that cause flus or colds.
It would not be difficult to conduct a survey of a representative sample of the population in a country where the virus has been detected, using volunteers who agreed to be tested, to find out how many people were infected but did not become ill, or only experienced mild symptoms that have ended. If the number of people who have become seriously ill is only a very small fraction of the total number of infected persons–let us say, only .01 per cent–then the CoSARS-2 virus not dangerous enough for the governments and disease-control authorities to have declared a
“pandemic.” and imposed harsh restrictions on the entire population. The disease-control authorities and the governments they advise could have made an epidemiological survey to determine how serious the CoSARS-2 virus really was. But for some reason, none of the national and international agencies involved conducted such a study before declaring a pandemic.
Whatever the motives for their excessive haste, it is criminal negligence.
From the WHO website about three weeks ago.Q. How are COVID-19 and influenza viruses similar?
Firstly, COVID-19 and influenza viruses have a similar disease presentation. That is, they both cause respiratory disease, which presents as a wide range of illness from asymptomatic or mild through to severe disease and death.
Secondly, both viruses are transmitted by contact, droplets and fomites. As a result, the same public health measures, such as hand hygiene and good respiratory etiquette (coughing into your elbow or into a tissue and immediately disposing of the tissue), are important actions all can take to prevent infection.
Q. How are COVID-19 and influenza viruses different?
The speed of transmission is an important point of difference between the two viruses. Influenza has a shorter median incubation period (the time from infection to appearance of symptoms) and a shorter serial interval (the time between successive cases) than COVID-19 virus. The serial interval for COVID-19 virus is estimated to be 5-6 days, while for influenza virus, the serial interval is 3 days. This means that influenza can spread faster than COVID- 19.
Further, transmission in the first 3-5 days of illness, or potentially pre-symptomatic transmission –transmission of the virus before the appearance of symptoms – is a major driver of transmission for influenza. In contrast, while we are learning that there are people who can shed COVID-19 virus 24-48 hours prior to symptom onset, at present, this does not appear to be a major driver of transmission.
The reproductive number – the number of secondary infections generated from one infected individual – is understood to be between 2 and 2.5 for COVID-19 virus, higher than for influenza. However, estimates for both COVID-19 and influenza viruses are very context and time-specific, making direct comparisons more difficult.
It is significant that this directly contradicts the Healthline.com report concerning the speed of transmission of the two (allegedly separate) diseases. Also note the nearly identical symptomology between the two supposedly distinct illnesses. Clearly WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic without knowing much about its characteristics, or even whether it was a separate disease from flu.
It is significant that there are directly contradictory reports in presumably reliable sources about crucial facts about the COVID-19 virus. Health line.com states that “in early 2020, a new virus began generating headlines all over the world because of the unprecedented speed of its transmission.” On the other hand a report on the WHO website asserts that one of the major difference between the COVID-19 virus and influenza is that the novel coronavirus speed of transmisission is slower than influenza. The contradiction between these disease information sources indicates that WHO declared a pendemic before it knew much about the novel coronavirus It is not clear that it knows much about it even now.