NYC health commissioner resigns amid tensions over de Blasio's handling of COVID-19
Dr. Oxiris Barbot says the health department's disease control expertise was 'not used to the degree it could have been'; Greg Gutfeld reacts on 'Outnumbered.'
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “might be the least-liked mayor in the history of the universe,” Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld said on Tuesday, soon after the city's health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot's handed in her resignation over the mayor’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
"He is an absentee landlord,” Gutfeld, who lives in New York, told “Outnumbered” on Tuesday. “He has left the city and he is more interested in championing the symbolic gestures of graffiti or whatnot then actually helping the people that are dying.”
In her resignation letter, Barbot wrote, "I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department's incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been."
"Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work," she continued. "The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center of the response not in the background."
Barbot’s resignation comes amid a clash between the mayor and the city’s health officials over his decision to take the Health Department’s responsibility for COVID-19 contact tracing and, instead, giving that responsibility to the public hospital system, The New York Times reported.
Gutfeld said that Barbot and de Blasio are currently “throwing each other under the bus” because they know the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City, which was at first considered the epicenter, was “a disaster.”
NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER RESIGNS, CITING DE BLASIO'S HANDLING OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
As of Tuesday afternoon, New York City has reported more than 222,000 coronavirus cases and more than 18,000 deaths, according to the city’s department of health.
“They have had serious, serious problems and a lot of it is on this guy's [de Blasio’s] shoulders,” Gutfeld said.
“New York’s got to find an alternative to leftism because they’re just going to keep winning elections if you keep giving up,” he continued.
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De Blasio confirmed that he received Barbot's resignation letter before noon Tuesday, and appointed Dr. Dave A. Choksi as her replacement.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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