Dr. Oxiris Barbot, New York City’s health commissioner, is a caring, compassionate healer whose humanitarian instincts are flawless.
Except when it comes to the police.
New York City’s health commissioner blew off an urgent NYPD request for 500,000 surgical masks as the coronavirus crisis mounted — telling a high-ranking police official that “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops,” The Post has learned.
Dr. Oxiris Barbot made the heartless remark during a brief phone conversation in late March with NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
New York City has experienced a catastrophic loss of life during the coronavirus pandemic with nearly 20,000 people dead. And that’s probably an undercount. There were 24,000 “excess” deaths in the city during the outbreak.
Dr. Barbot must be very proud of herself.
Monahan asked Barbot for 500,000 masks but she said she could only provide 50,000, the sources said.
“I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops,” Barbot said, according to sources.
“I need them for others.”
The conversation took place as increasing numbers of cops were calling out sick with symptoms of COVID-19 but before the department suffered its first casualties from the deadly respiratory disease, sources said.
Perhaps the health commissioner would “give two rats asses” about cops if she was in imminent danger of being raped by some gangbangers. But then, maybe the cops wouldn’t give two rats asses about her.
The New York Police Department has seen 5500 positive tests for the coronavirus with 41 deaths. Do you think those masks would have been put to good use?
Sadly, Dr. Barbot’s anti-cop attitude permeates the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor’s well-known sympathies for Black Lives Matter and the painfully politically correct policies he’s put in place have caused NYPD morale to sink to a new low.
Barbot’s comments certainly don’t help.
In the wake of Barbot’s crass rebuff of Monahan, NYPD officials learned that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had a large stash of masks, ventilators and other equipment stored in a New Jersey warehouse, sources said.
The department appealed to City Hall, which arranged for the NYPD to get 250,000 surgical masks, sources said.
The federal Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency also learned about the situation, leading FEMA to supply the NYPD with Tyvek suits and disinfectant, sources said.
Could the doctor’s words lead to her ouster?
Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, called for Barbot to be fired over her “Despicable and unforgivable” comments.
“Dr. Barbot should be forced to look in the eye of every police family who lost a hero to this virus. Look them in the eye and tell them they aren’t worth a rat’s ass,” Lynch fumed.
Barbot was absent from de Blasio’s daily coronavirus briefing, leading to speculation that she may be on the way out. For New York City police, it won’t come a moment too soon.
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