Legionnaires tragedy warns US voters that unserious leaders can be deadly

So far five New Yorkers have been killed by the latest Legionella outbreak — and with victims still hospitalized, the death toll may rise.All of them were preventable tragedies.The city has a core, lifesaving duty to monitor and inspect the air-conditioning cooling towers that can spread potentially deadly bacteria.But Mayor Zohran Mamdani is focused on creating a socialist utopia instead of keeping the city running. He’s got blood on his hands, along with Health Commissioner Alister Martin.  City officials claim the worst of the current outbreak, centered in Manhattan’s Yorkville and Upper East Side neighborhoods, is probably over.But truth is, all signs point to more Legionella outbreaks this summer — in a city unprepared to stop them.Short of staying inside or wearing a highly effective N95 mask, there’s little you can do to avoid Legionella, the germ that causes Legionnaires’ disease, a form of bacterial pneumonia. The flimsy masks sold in the drugstore won’t protect you.Too bad, because 12% of those who contract a Legionella infection die within 30 days.This disease is no joke.The cooling towers atop most buildings with commercial air-conditioning systems are the outbreak’s source. In hot weather, water is circulated throughout the building and then up to the cooling towers, where fans send water vapor into the air.If the cooling tower is contaminated with Legionella bacteria, which randomly develops in warm water, the vapor can sicken anyone walking by as it floats downward.Older people and those with chronic disease are most susceptible — and the Upper East Side is home to multiple nursing homes and care centers.Legionella is endemic to the East Coast in hot weather, but deaths are preventable if public health departments and elected officials do their jobs.That means ensuring that buildings test their cooling towers monthly, as the city requires, and that towers undergo mandatory annual city inspections.But the city was way be...