Mamdani admin blastedfor tone-deaf victory lap over deadly Legionnaires outbreak: Were just left to die
Tone-deaf officials in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration declared a Legionnaires’ disease cluster on the Upper East Side had “ended” Friday — as frustrated locals said they felt abandoned during the outbreak that so far killed seven people.The premature victory lap not only unfolded as five New Yorkers remained hospitalized, but also as records revealed city officials hadn’t inspected a single potentially disease-harboring cooling tower during June.And just half of the roughly 160 buildings in the affected area have been fully inspected so far.Upper East Side resident Saundrea Coleman said Mamdani and his administration were “absent” as the disease — and fear of exposure — gripped the neighborhood through July’s sweaty weeks.“We just feel like we’re just left to die,” she said.Department of Health officials convened a virtual news conference Friday morning — a day after the seventh victim died — to declare the 14-day incubation period for new Legionnaires’ cases had ended.
They also blasted out a press release.No new symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease popped up during that two-week span, suggesting the cooling tower that fostered the deadly bacterium had been eliminated amid a disinfection effort, officials said.The Upper East Side’s ZIP codes of 10028, 10075 and 10128 no longer posed an elevated risk of exposure, the officials said.But as health officials patted themselves on the back, five people lingered in critical condition with the disease, local pols said — leaving the grim potential that the final toll could match the 12 deaths from the city’s deadliest past outbreak in 2015.And Mamdani, rather than huddling with the still-reeling community, spent his morning in the Bronx for a photo op at the stairs popularized in the 2019 film “Joker.” Valerie Mason, president of the local community board, noted the affected ZIP codes included Mamdani’s new home of Gracie Mansion.She cast the city’s response as lackada...