How Mamdanis minions failed New York in deadly Legionnaires outbreak

Last year, soon after a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem infected 118 New Yorkers and claimed seven lives, the City Council took action.We voted to triple the frequency of required testing for Legionella in building cooling towers, increasing it from quarterly to monthly, because we believed that this city owes New Yorkers better protection. Less than a year later, another outbreak has swept through Manhattan’s densely populated Upper East Side.At least 74 people have been infected, seven remain hospitalized — and four New Yorkers have tragically lost their lives. Their families deserve our deepest condolences.And they also deserve something more: real answers from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration. Legionnaires’ disease is no mystery.We know how it spreads, and we know how to reduce the risk. But even though the council strengthened the law months ago, the administration failed to match those reforms with the urgency, transparency and leadership New Yorkers need. Moreover, this month’s outbreak exposed a different set of failures that go beyond lack of sufficient testing.Throughout this outbreak, New Yorkers were too often left in the dark by a Health Department that didn’t promptly disclose which buildings had tested positive for Legionella, and that neglected its responsibility to  provide guidance to those in the affected neighborhoods. Worse yet, the city missed critical opportunities to prevent additional infections.I repeatedly called on the Health Department to proactively disinfect cooling towers throughout the affected area while investigators worked to identify the precise source of the bacteria, to no avail.Instead, the department chose to wait — and the crisis spread.

 Equally troubling is the apparent communication breakdown between the Health Department and city hospitals.Elected leaders learned of the outbreak’s second death through news reports, not directly from the Health Depar...