Pull up a bean bag chair for outbreak stories. It was just after the Jewish high holidays, 2000. My first year at the department. Six separate celebrations reported salmonella gastroenteritis following catered meals. All six had been supplied Gefilte Fish by the Mezonot Deli. In tracking back it was determined there was mishandling in the food prep and two workers had Salmonella in their stool samples. My job was to interview the rabbi's wife. When I called a child answered, her name was Rachel. She told me she was home sick. I commiserated. She then added, "I ate guilty fish."
The NYC Department of Investigation (DOI) is the agency that investigates wrongdoing by city workers. I submitted a complaint of whistleblower retaliation in the last days of July and received an acknowledgement from DOI on 8-2-22. It takes DOI a long time to close investigations. The median days an investigation remained open in a FY21 was 96, but this includes ones opened at various times over several years. Some investigations have been open 700 or more days.
Of the 16 whistleblower retaliations closed in the most recent report, none resulted in a finding that the complainant was entitled to protection under the City's Whistleblower Protection Law. The report, however, has this qualifying statement:
"However, even when a complainant is found not to have met the technical requirements for protection under the Law, DOI will still make recommendations to an agency to redress any problematic conduct or issues, where warranted."
DOI website: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doi/report/AnnualWhistleblowerLetters.page
Several things happened today. Governor Hochul declared monkeypox a state disaster in the hopes of bolstering vaccine efforts. And DOHMH finally changed the prevention guidance on our website (the reason I spoke to NYT). See below. DOHMH is also convening an advisory group (scroll to the bottom).
In July of 2020 my then supervisor, Dr. Marci Layton, and I defied a direct order from then Deputy Commissioner of Disease Control, and Incident Commander, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis. The order had come from City Hall and required us to produce a daily report on clusters of COVID-19 in worksites and private schools. We explained there were very few per...
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the NYC Health Commissioner, is on a crusade to change the name of monkeypox because he believes it is stigmatizing. He wrote a letter to the WHO saying so.
I was walking home from the gym and passed a man wearing a red t-shirt with writing on it. I can't help myself, if I see words I am going to read them. The shirt read," Make Lies Wrong Again." How apropos, what is vexing for me, and many of my colleagues, what weighs on them like leaden clouds,...
I, and my colleagues, have bore witness to the carnage monkeypox has caused. Over 1000 cases have occurred in NYC in a little over a month. We've also heard the pleas from physicians trying to get their patients limited treatment, and the anguish in the voices of patients suffering with monkeypox proctitis. This disease does not often kill, but it...