Mayor Bill de Blasio’s micromanaging of the city’s coronavirus response is preventing city health officials from getting the latest guidance about how to contain its spread to the public, five sources told The Post.
“He needs to step back and let the health commissioner make the decision. There’s just too many missteps,” one local elected official told The Post.
City Health Department officials are “wildly frustrated with Mayor de Blasio,” according to an agency source.
“Mayor de Blasio has instructed everyone that he will personally approve, edit and rewrite all coronavirus communications,” according to the agency source.
“He’s wrong on a lot of things and he’s making a lot of mistakes,” the source said, referencing the mayor misinforming a traveler who had returned from Italy last week that she didn’t need to self-isolate unless she had symptoms.
On Sunday morni꧒ng, de Blasio said on WBLS that the disease cannot be spread by people who do not show symptoms — though the CDC has said that is unknown.
The agency source said the health officials have sent de Blasio updated guidance, but it’s “sitting on the mayor’s desk and not moving.”
The source added that the mayor’s relationship with his Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, is “toxic right now” because of the logjam. Her No. 2, Deputy Commissioner for Disease Control Demetre Daskalakis, stopped attending the mayor’s briefings last week after disagreements with the mayor.
“Every word of this is true,” said a City Hall source.
Two add🏅itional sources confirmed the c𒁃ommunications breakdown.
Freddi Goldstein, the mayor’s press secretary, confirmed that he reviews new guidance but said he’s not line-editing and causing a logjam.