Chokshi succeeds Dr. Oxiris Barbot as the City’s health commissioner, following her resignation on Aug. 4. The mayor thanked Barbot for her service to the City, commending her good work in addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

 

It was reported on social media by various news outlets, that in her resignation letter to the mayor, in reference to the coronavirus pandemic, Barbot wrote, “I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis, the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been”.

 

Norwood News asked the City for a copy of the resignation letter and to date, we have not received it, though we did receive a copy of the email that Barbot sent to her colleagues, in which she thanked them for their work and dedication, and confirmed her resignation.

 

“I am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved as an agency over the past several years including using a racial equity lens to center communities at the heart of what we do, leveraging our public health data for policy and action in addressing structural inequities and bridging public health and health care delivery so that all of our communities have an equitable opportunity to be healthy and flourish,” she wrote.

NYC Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot @NYCHealthCommr has resigned. Back in late May, after tensions had been reported between her and @NYCMayor, she told me at that point -in Spanish- that nobody had asked her to resign. Two months later, she’s out. pic.twitter.com/5C2RPS3xPW

— Juan Manuel Benítez (@JuanMaBenitez) August 4, 2020

During an interview in Spanish with NY1 journalist, Juan Manuel Benítez, two months ago, Benítez asked Barbot if she had been asked to resign  from her position. At that time, she said nobody had asked her to resign.

 

As previously reported by Norwood News, at the beginning of the pandemic, CDC representatives said that N95 masks were in short supply, and were reserved for front line health care workers, who it was clear were being directly exposed to the virus from patients.

 

As the pandemic unfolded, police and other emergency services were falling ill from the virus, since they were transporting patients from their homes to other locations. Coronavirus-related deaths among police and the emergency services followed. Eyewitness News reported that, in March, when NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan had asked Barbot for a supply of N-95 masks for police officers, the two got into a heated discussion due to the short supply of masks at that time.

 

Barbot allegedly wanted to preserve the low stocks for front line health care workers. During the March discussion, it was reported that she made some offensive remarks to Monahan, for which she later apologized. Barbot was later called an expletive on social media by a member of the NYPD Sergeants’ Benevolent Association (SBA) in response to her comments. This was despite the fact that Monahan had already accepted her apology.

 

NBC reported that when questioned during a press conference about the name-calling of Barbot by the SBA, De Blasio said, “I have not seen all the comments from different unions, and I want to caution that if people are concerned about this issue they need to express their concern in an appropriate manner, and two wrongs don’t make a right”. NBC also reported that the mayor added at the time that the SBA’s language was misogynist and unacceptable.

 

"The Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been," Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in a resignation letter submitted to Mayor Bill de Blasio. https://t.co/z9tnLzegvZ via @HuffPostPol

— LaTrenda Carswell (@JnrPhotog) August 4, 2020

Various tributes to Barbot circulated on social media, following news of her resignation, including from Dr. Mitch Katz, who wrote, “On behalf of the @NYSHealthSystem family, I want to send best wishes to to @DrOBarbot and express our gratitude for her service as board member, her commitment to public health and to improving the lives of all New Yorkers”.

On behalf of the @NYCHealthSystem family, I want to send best wishes to @DrOBarbot and express our gratitude for her service as board member, her commitment to public health and to improving the lives of all New Yorkers.

— Mitch Katz, MD (@DrKatzNYCHH) August 4, 2020

 

Meanwhile, the City’s health department wrote in a press release that Chokshi comes to the department with a wealth of experience in public health, clinical medicine, and health policy. Raised in Baton Rouge as the son of immigrants, he served at the Louisiana Department of Health before and after Hurricane Katrina, with a focus on reshaping the State’s healthcare system in the wake of the storm. He was also a Rhodes Scholar, earning an MSc in global public health from the University of Oxford.

 

He served as a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration and was the principal health advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.

 

Chokshi will continue his clinical practice at Bellevue Hospital, where he has taken care of patients as a primary care physician since 2014. He trained at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. During his training, he did clinical work in Guatemala, Peru, Botswana, Ghana, and India.

 

Chokshi also served on the FEMA delegation to New York City after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, coordinating with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on a door knocking initiative to bring food and medication to stranded seniors in high rises across hard-hit areas of the city. As Special Advisor to New York City Health Commissioner Tom Farley, Chokshi contributed to the City’s response to opioid addiction, obesity, and disease prevention in 2011.

 

He lives in Jackson Heights, Queens—just a few blocks from Elmhurst Hospital—with his wife, an educator in New York City public schools, and 14-month-old daughter.