By: Benyamin Davidsons
Nine or more top health officials in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration have resigned, retired or been reassigned amid the novel Coronavirus and criticism against the administration policies. Still, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker has managed to hold on to his hat.
On Monday, the NY Times reported the departures, tying them to dissatisfaction with the state’s handling of the pandemic. The paper also said that sources were complaining that the policies set are put in place by Gov. Cuomo and his close aides, who are not health experts. “When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts,” Cuomo openly acknowledged on Friday. “Because I don’t. Because I don’t.”
As reported by the NY Post, Cuomo still continues to stand by Zucker, his top health expert, a Bronx native who became one of America’s youngest doctors at the age of 22 and continued on to attain board certification in six specialties/subspecialties , a JD from from Fordham Law School, a LL.M. from Columbia Law School and a postgraduate diploma from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Zucker, who joined the Department of Health in 2013, has also come under fire, with at least two Republican lawmakers calling for his resignation. The DOH’s infamous March 25 order for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients remains at the forefront of the controversy. Last week, Zucker also got scathed when Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation found that the Health Department downplayed the total number of nursing home deaths by withholding the number of residents who died after being sent to hospitals for COVID-19.
James’ report finally led Zucker to release the figures – saying that 12,743 residents have died of COVID-19 in NY nursing homes and hospitals as of Jan. 19. A day earlier, the official DOH number of nursing home deaths was 8,711, all of whom died in the nursing home facilities. On Friday, expressing frustration regarding James’ report, Cuomo broke out at a news conference asking, “But who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”
Health officials to vacate their posts since July include: the state’s chief nursing home regulator; Deputy Health Commissioner Brad Hutton; Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, medical director of epidemiology; and Dr. Jill Taylor, head of Wadsworth Center research lab in Albany. In a statement to the NY Times, Zucker said that the state was facing “an intense period of extraordinary stress and pressure and a different job than some signed onto.” He added that more recruits have “joined the agency with the talents necessary to confront this new challenge”. He noted that proof would be “in the performance numbers.
