Bill de Blasio, America's worst mayor
To say that Mayor Bill de Blasio has done a poor job under pressure is to understate the case. In the simpler times of 2014, New Yorkers had the luxury of chuckling at his weak leadership, as when he killed a defenseless groundhog at a public event. But that he has proven himself such a clown amid a grave crisis, even while vigorously casting blame at everyone else, makes for a grim sort of humor that the city's self-quarantined residents can ill-afford at the moment.
Had the mayor merely downplayed the risk early on, it would be unfair to single him out. So many others did. So many carelessly denounced travel restrictions as racism or xenophobia. So many tried to claim, wrongly, that the coronavirus was less of a threat than the flu. Nearly everyone underestimated or underrepresented the gravity of this plague, including key leaders such as President Trump. Few leaders anticipated in February just how badly out of control things could get.
But de Blasio stands out for a number of reasons that are probably not wholly unconnected to his city’s current sufferings.
For one thing, he set an appalling personal example for all New Yorkers when, on March 16, he snuck out to his local YMCA to get in one last workout before all the gyms in the city were required to close. It is precisely this sort of “beat the quarantine” behavior that has spread the virus so widely in the first place. Indeed, this sort of behavior in New York at least briefly inspired other states’ attempts to detect and isolate refugees from New York City. After the fact, de Blasio couldn't understand why people were upset about this.
De Blasio was certainly not alone in being wrong about the disease, but he might have been alone in disseminating such consistently incorrect and oddly specific public health advice. He claimed in late January that one could only catch the coronavirus through “prolonged exposure” to someone infected, not from “a single contact.” On Feb. 2, he announced that the virus could not be contracted “from a surface” or “from glancing or very temporary contact.” These claims never had any scientific basis, and it is still puzzling why he made them. As advice to individuals navigating a plague, these personal tips are precisely the sort of things that can create dangerous complacency — far more dangerous than any sort of mere overoptimism about the disease’s eventual nationwide or worldwide progression.
De Blasio was not alone in telling people during February that the disease “should not stop you from going about your life.” But the thing is, he was still doing that as late as March 11. The day Trump addressed the nation to encourage “school closures, social distancing, and reducing large gatherings,” de Blasio told New Yorkers the exact opposite — “to not avoid restaurants, not avoid normal things that people do. ... If you’re not sick, you should be going about your life.”
Even then, de Blasio somehow had the gall to accuse Trump of “minimizing what has now become a global pandemic.” But de Blasio still waited until that weekend (March 15) before finally closing New York City schools.
It was always inevitable that a global plague would reach a global city such as New York, no matter who was mayor. It was also inevitable that a place with such unusual population density would face extra risk from a highly contagious disease. But these probabilities only reinforce the city’s need for better leadership than what it has now. It is telling that, despite the flaws in Trump’s performance on coronavirus, de Blasio still would have done less badly had he merely taken all of his cues from the White House.
On Friday, de Blasio stared at the camera of MSNBC's Morning Joe and complained that "over a week ago," he had demanded from the White House and the Pentagon "1,000 nurses, 150 doctors, 300 respiratory therapists. For the nation's largest city ... you'd think in a country this big, this strong, that would be an easy request to fill. And I'm still waiting."
Of course, the city did just get a 1,000-bed hospital boat to supply its noncoronavirus medical needs amid the crisis. But beyond that, sure — there are probably dozens of doctors just sitting around in the Pentagon basement, waiting to be deployed.
Meanwhile, days earlier, with his city’s healthcare system at risk of being overrun by the virus, de Blasio had time to virtue-signal, carefully and publicly looking down his nose at the evangelical Christian charity that set up a desperately needed makeshift hospital in Central Park.
Even now, America’s worst mayor isn’t taking any of this seriously.
EXCLUSIVE
City Hall didn’t secure 1st order of COVID-19 supplies for NYC until March 6
March 20, 2020 
Bill de BlasioWilliam Farrington
Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed President Trump for the city’s severe shortage of COVID-19 supplies even though City Hall didn’t secure its first order for emergency protective gear until March 6, The Post has learned.
Officials with the city’s Office of Emergency Management tried to purchase nearly 200,000 n95 masks on Feb. 7, but weeks later they learned the vendors had already run out.
It was not until March 6 and March 10 — over two months after the coronavirus outbreak first hit China— that they finally secured the first emergency procurements of masks and hand sanitizer, according to the city comptroller’s office.
“Our city is the epicenter of this outbreak in the United States, and we are lacking supplies because the mayor didn’t notice until two weeks ago?” fumed City Councilman Chaim Deutsch.
“We ought to have been prepared for this. Blaming Trump is an easy way to avoid hard questions, but it exposes a distinct lack of management on the part of this administration,” the Brooklyn Democrat said.
A City Hall spokeswoman said on Feb. 7, the city’s Office of Emergency Management tried to purchase nearly 200,000 N95 masks, but regular vendors had already run out. She added that the Health Department had already stockpiled 19 million surgical masks and said there have been no payment delays.
Comptroller Scott Stringer granted approval for the early March orders of masks and hand sanitizer the same day, but a medical supply vendor who has standing city contracts told The Post that initial requests for protective gear from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services were mired in bureaucratic red tape.
It took the agency an average of 72 hours to complete an order, he said.
“We’d send them a list of products we can deliver within 24, 48 hours,” said the head of one of the medical supply companies, who declined to be named for fear of jeopardizing his current contracts.
“The private sector is knocking on our door all day, every day. We have every hospital facility from Buffalo to across the country chasing us for the same product — N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, hand sanitizer — and the city just moves so slow, I mean it’s a joke,” he said.
His company started stocking up on supplies in January and he works with a Chinese manufacturer that’s operating at 100 percent capacity.
He said the city missed out on eight of 10 supply orders because DCAS blew payment deadlines.
“I personally live in the city. It’s just a shame to see the city move at the pace they’re moving. It’s just an embarrassment,” the supplier said.
“For the private sector, we’ve been selling and pushing product in the last four weeks and the city woke up two weeks ago,” the exec said.
A city spokeswoman said there were no payment delays.
The comptroller’s office approved 12 emergency contracts totaling $150 million before the mayor suspended procurement rules on March 16 and took over the process.
During his City Hall press briefing Thursday, de Blasio assured NYPD and other first responders, who’ve complained about a lack of protective equipment, that he’s tried everything in his power to marshal supplies.
“We will do everything we can to get every conceivable supply of protective equipment from anywhere in the nation that we can on the private market and get it directly to you,” he said.
But, he added, Trump “has to give the order to get the federal government to get you what you deserve.”
Nick Benson, a DCAS spokesman, said the city maintains a three-month supply of gloves, cleaning products and hand sanitizer.
Since the outbreak, the city has ordered 25 million masks, 2 million bottles of sanitizer, 12,000 thermometers and 2,000 ventilators. Turnaround times “vary significantly,” Benson said.
“There is enormous demand for these and other products, but the City of New York is leveraging existing contracts with vendors to obtain supplies. When a vendor is unable to provide the quantity we need, we have identified other vendors. In many cases, vendors are shipping goods as soon as they’re manufactured,” Benson added.
On Thursday, de Blasio said if the federal government doesn’t send 3 million more N95 masks, 50 million more surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators and 45 million surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves and face shields by April, the city could run out of these supplies.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment