Mayor Zohran Mamdani insisted the Legionnaires’ outbreak was under control Wednesday as he faced mounting questions over his administration’s response while the deal toll climbed to five with more than 80 people becoming infected.
“I’m frankly less interested in the politics of it all, more in the public health of it,” Mamdani quipped during an unrelated press conference after being asked about City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s criticism of his Department of Health’s handling of the outbreak in a recent op-ed for The Post.
Families of the five New Yorkers who died and the 82 who were sickened “deserve … real answers” from City Hall, Menin fumed.
She charged that DOH officials “failed New York” by not proactively disinfecting cooling towers in Upper Manhattan, where the cluster of cases has spread.
The flu-like illness is caused by breathing in mist or water drops with Legionella bacteria, and can lead to severe lung infections that can be more dangerous for the elderly, smokers and those with weakened immune systems.
Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said the city thinks it has “eliminated” the origin of the outbreak by treating cooling towers in the Upper East Side cluster area. But officials have yet to publicly identify the source, saying DNA sequencing is still pending.
DOH officials said that of those infected since the outbreak started on the Upper East Side last month, 21 people currently have the disease and more eight remain hospitalized.
“Furthermore, we believe that we have now eliminated the source of the initial cluster. There has been no one with new symptoms reported in more than 10 days and no new diagnoses in a week,” Martin said.
Mamdani defended his approach, saying that public health experts told him that pre-emptively disinfecting could hurt the city’s ability to mitigate high risk cooling towers and could weaken their ability to protect against the disease in the future. Over using disinfectants can cause corrosion and damage the equipment as well potentially disrupting cooling systems during the summer heat.
“We want this to be a city where it’s clear that the guidance, the actions, the information that we share with New Yorkers — it’s not without any political incentive in mind, but rather a public health incentive,” Mamdani insisted.
DOH officials said that blanket water tower remediation could take resources away from mitigating high risk ones or have unintended consequences like shutting cooling systems down during high temperature days.
But Menin, a Manhattan Democrat, said her office has heard from hundreds of New Yorkers worried about the health and safety of their families and neighbors since the outbreak began.
“[Menin] has advocated for them in calling for the most rapid and robust public health response possible and arranging an oversight hearing on proposals to better contain future outbreaks.” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The speaker had also criticized the health department’s approach when there was a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem last year under then-Mayor Eric Adams that resulted in seven deaths and more than 100 cases.
“This has nothing to do with politics, and Speaker Menin’s recent statements are consistent with her advocacy during last year’s Legionnaires’ outbreak in Harlem,” the spokesperson stated.
