Oxiris Barbot博士辞去纽约市s健康她在辞职信中说“卫生部无与伦比的疾病控制专业知识没有被充分利用。”
“我今天带着深深的失望离开我的岗位,”她的辞职信针对比尔·白思豪市长的政府说。“我们的专家以其流行病学、监测和应对工作而闻名于世。让他们站在应对措施的战略中心,而不是站在幕后,对这座城市将大有裨益。”
她的继任者立即被宣布为戴夫·乔克希博士,他是罗兹奖学金获得者,在卡特里娜飓风期间曾在路易斯安那州卫生部工作,是奥巴马政府退伍军人事务部部长的首席健康顾问。
在周二的新闻发布会上,白思豪在回答有关巴伯辞职的问题时表示:“是时候改变了,很明显是时候改变了。”他补充说:“这显然不是一件事。”
在一封宣布她离职的信中,巴伯描述了她升任纽约市卫生局局长的过程。
她写道:“作为一个在这座城市的公共住房中长大的有色人种女性,我总是把公共卫生、种族平等和我所热爱的城市的福祉放在首位,我为此感到骄傲。”"我对这座城市和公众健康的承诺是坚定不移的。"
巴伯的辞职是在白思豪剥夺了该市的COVID-19的控制权后发生的接触者追踪卫生部的一个项目,该项目在历史上一直负责追踪。市长转而将该项目置于健康与医院机构之下,该机构负责管理该市的公立医院。
白思豪说:“我们需要一个团结的氛围,一个共同的目标,人们真正关注的是政府的所有部门共同努力。”这可能是指城市的卫生部门和卫生与医院之间的分工。“我想说的是,很明显,我们需要向前迈进。”
最近几周,该市的合同追踪项目遭到了抨击,因为接触追踪人员抱怨该项目组织混乱,工作条件恶劣。
三月份,当NYPD警察局长特伦斯·莫纳汉要求他的警官多带些口罩时,巴伯也与之发生了冲突。据《纽约邮报》报道。这起事件被媒体广泛报道后,巴伯从公众视线中消失了好几天,当时正值冠状病毒纽约市爆发。
New York City's health commissioner resigns, criticizing coronavirus handling
Dr. Oxiris Barbot resigned asNew York City'shealthcommissioner, saying in her resignation letter that "the Health Department's incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been."
"I leave my post today with deep disappointment," her resignation letter said, taking aim at Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. "Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work. The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center of the response not in the background."
Her replacement was immediately announced as Dr. Dave Chokshi, a Rhodes Scholar who served at the Louisiana Department of Health during Hurricane Katrina and was the principal health adviser to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Obama administration.
"It was time for a change, it became clear it was time for a change," de Blasio said during a Tuesday news conference, in response to a question about Barbot's resignation. It was "not obviously about one thing," he added.
In a letter to her staff announcing her departure, Barbot described her rise to NYC health chief.
"I am proud that as a woman of color raised in public housing in this city, I always put public health, racial equity and the well-being of the city I love first," she wrote. "My commitment to this city and to public health is unwavering."
Barbot's resignation comes after de Blasio stripped control of the city's COVID-19contact tracingprogram from the health department, which has historically handled tracing. The mayor instead placed the program under Health and Hospitals, the agency that runs the city's public hospitals.
"We need an atmosphere of unity, of common purpose, and people really focusing on all the parts of this government working together," de Blasio said, a possible reference to division between the city's health department and Health and Hospitals. "What I'm saying was, it became clear that there was a need to move forward."
In recent weeks, the city's contract tracing program has come under fire after complaints from contact tracers about the program being disorganized and having poor working conditions.
Barbot also butted heads with NYPD Police Chief Terence Monahan when he asked for more face masks for his officers in March,according to the New York Post. Following the incident, which was widely reported in the media, Barbot disappeared from public view for days -- at the height of thecoronavirusoutbreak in New York City.