NYC’s Health Commissioner Resigns After Battles With Mayor

(Bloomberg) -- New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot has resigned after months of disagreements with Mayor de Blasio over policies dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak that made the city a global epicenter for the pandemic in April and May.

David Chokshi replaced Barbot as commissioner of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the mayor said in a news release. Chokshi has served in leadership roles in the city's Health + Hospitals, its system of public hospitals and clinics, for the past six years, most recently supervising health care delivery for New Yorkers, many of whom lack insurance.

Barbot and the mayor clashed over the role of the public hospital system in combating the Covid-19 outbreak a few months ago, when de Blasio placed Health + Hospitals in charge of the city's testing and contact tracing -- a program the health department has historically led during outbreaks of other infectious diseases.

Barbot and the mayor also disagreed over the timing of the city's shutdown in the pandemic's early days last March, when she called for more aggressive moves, such as school and business closings, before the mayor was ready to make such moves. She didn't respond to emailed requests for comment.

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