NYC NOW - August 28, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Bridget Anne Kelly, a former aide to ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is opposing Randy Mastro’s nomination as New York City’s top attorney. Mastro previously issued a controversial report that exonerated Christie during the Bridgegate scandal while blaming Kelly. Meanwhile, immigration experts warn that the mass deportation plan proposed by former President Trump, if reelected, could have severe consequences for New York and the nation. Finally, New York City health care workers who were on the front lines during the early COVID-19 pandemic have published a 400-page textbook titled “The COVID Response in New York City: Crisis Management in the Epicenter of the Epicenter.” WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with two of its authors, Dr. Eric Wei and Dr. Laura Iavicoli, to learn more.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, August 28th. Here's the Midday News. I'm Jene Pierre. A one-time aide to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was implicated in the Bridgegate scandal, is pushing back on the nomination of Randy Mastro as New York City's top attorney. Bridget Ann Kelly was convicted on federal corruption charges for conspiring.

to close lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge in 2013. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned her conviction. In 2014, as Christy's attorney, Randy Mastrow issued a report that was criticized for exonerating Christy while scapegoating Kelly. In surprise testimony, Tuesday, Kelly called that report sexist and said it ruined her reputation. Perhaps you hire him when you need to threaten or scare someone, or when you need to take someone down for your own political security, or when you need a scapegoat to get you out of trouble. Mastro did not respond to requests to comment.

Earlier in the hearing, he offered a general defense of his work. Immigration experts say a mass deportation, like the one former President Trump says he would carry out if reelected, could have devastating consequences for New York and the nation. Mario Russell is executive director of the Center for Migration Studies of New York. He says the policy would have enormous implications beyond the 600,000 unauthorized immigrants in the state and the 11 million unauthorized immigrants across the U.S. The undocumented are providing services in enormous numbers in the health care sector, in the delivery sector, in the hospitality sector. So they're really at the core of some of the essential functions.

He says unauthorized immigrants make up about 5% of New York's workforce and estimates the policy would cost about a half a trillion dollars to implement. Stay close. after the break. NYC. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. There's a 400-page textbook out written by New York City health care workers who were on the front lines of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's called the COVID response in New York City, crisis management in the epicenter of the epicenter. And joining us now are two of its authors.

Dr. Eric Way is the Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer for NYC Health and Hospitals. and Dr. Laura Iva Coley is the chief medical officer at Elmhurst Hospital Center. Dr. Avicoli, tell us more about the book. What led 100 staff members from the city's public hospitals to come together to publish this? There were multiple reasons why we wanted to come together and publish this. I mean, for the historical value to make sure that this was embedded in history, the historic response of all of the 42 plus thousand healthcare workers that ran into the fire to really save countless and countless lives.

for the scientific value and for the layperson so that the layperson could really see what the mission and vision of New York City Health and Hospitals is to take care of all New Yorkers, regardless of ability to pay, insurance status, wraith ethnicity, immigration status, and why we're here to help the most vulnerable. Dr. Avicoli, looking back four years since the pandemic hit the city, what are some of the top lessons to learn from the city's response to it? I think the top lessons learned is handling mass surge. The light switch really turned on and we were able to handle an influx of patients like we could have never imagined even in our wildest dreams.

how to handle the technical aspects of the response from IT, from data and analytics, how to handle nuances of a massive public health system, you know, 11 acute care facilities, five post-acute, the hotels, the community care, test and trace program. I mean, the massive amount of coordination that was put into this is really, really incredible. Dr. Way, can you talk about a memory you have? from your time treating patients with COVID that informed what you decided to include in the textbook? Yeah, I have so many tough memories and stories from COVID, but one was I received a call late at night from another senior leader in the system who said, can you meet me at the morgue tomorrow

morning at 7 a.m. at Holmhurst. But then, you know, I paused and asked why the morgue? And the other leader said all the staff have fallen ill or hurt their backs because of all the decedents that they're managing medical examiner's office can't take away any of the extra trailers until they're confident about the lists of the bodies that are at each trailer and they have death certificates and so there's a huge backup and to see the director of the morgue he had started bringing in his son to help him and there were really the last two workers left, that is the type of kind of unsung hero behind the scenes, healthcare hero that doesn't come to light of day

without writing a book like this. And so there were so many thousands upon thousands of stories like this one where people were going above and beyond and doing their part to respond to this unprecedented pandemic. Same question for you, Dr. Avicoli, have a memory from the pandemic that helped inform what you put in the book? As Eric said, so many. I mean, one that comes to mind now is for the couple of hours that I had gone home to check on my family one night during the height of wave one. And I got a phone call that at Elmhurst

that we had run out of ventilators. So I jumped out of bed. I ran in and I found some ventilators in a back corner. I mean, the entire ER was wall to wall. Patients, everybody on some form of life-saving oxygen, ambulances lined up down the street, patients lined up down the street, and we were amassing the ventilators that had just come in. I mean, supply chain was incredible at getting us the supplies that we needed. So we were getting ventilators in all hours of the night. And just the immense coordination and communication that was occurring from the front lines to hospital administration to system leadership in order to stand up this massive response. Dr. Way, do you have anything that you learned during the pandemic that you still use

in your practice today? Absolutely. I think New York City Health and Hospitals has existed as a corporation since the 1970s. But the history of each specific hospital goes back way, way longer. For example, New York City Health and Hospitals, Bellevue is the oldest hospital in the country. And so it seemed like a loose affiliation of historic hospitals rather than a system. And so through COVID, it really forced us to act as one system, 11 hospitals being able to share information in real time to be able to support each other and staff and equipment, even moving patients around to not overwhelm any. specific hospital. And so today, I feel like New York City Health and Hospitals is a much stronger system. And so we still use a lot of those same strategies to be able to support each other. What about you, Dr. Avicoling? Any lessons you learned that you're still using today?

I think the communication lesson was the biggest lesson learned and how you can never over communicate in a crisis. Communicating from the front line to depart. leadership, department leadership, to facility leadership, facility leadership, to central office leadership when I was in my role as senior assistant vice president for emergency management after wave one, you know, with the next subsequent waves, communicating as a health system with all the city agencies that Eric just mentioned and coordinating with NYSOM and Fidney and DOHMH and state DOH and greater New York and communicating with the other health systems. I mean, it was such a massive citywide, regional, statewide effort that everybody just stood up this massive response and

helped New York City Health and Hospitals, which was really the hardest hit during the pandemic, get through it and save so many lives. Dr. Way, folks probably have heard that there's other illnesses spreading around things like bird flu and Mpox. The World Health Organization declared an Mpox a global health emergency and the CDC reports that bird flu has affected 192 herds, but the public health risk is still low. How better prepared is New York City for another health crisis in the future? I think we are certainly much better positioned. Having gone through what we did with COVID, it's still fresh on the memory. The ability to be able to surge capacity in all aspects still exist today.

in our hospitals. We've already used some of those lessons learned for Mpox with vaccination a couple years ago. And then for tracking bird flu, you know, wastewater surveillance, the ability to have real-time data and analytics insights. All of that are the remnants of COVID response. Dr. Avicoli, we just went through a COVID summer surge. I fell victim to it. We have flu season coming up? What should people know about COVID in vaccines as we enter the fall? Everybody should get re-vaccinated if they're due to get re-vaccinated. I think we learned how to contain the spread, isolate at home. If you are in a category where you meet the criteria and your doctor tells you you meet the criteria, you should take the antiviral treatments,

should you become sick, good hand hygiene. I think we learned how to control it. and contain it. And I think if we just keep those lessons in the forefront of our mind, we'll be able to keep this one at bay. That was Dr. Eric Way, the senior vice president and chief quality officer for NYC Health and Hospitals. And Dr. Laura Iva Coley, the chief medical officer at NYC Health and Hospitals, Elmerst. Thanks to you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.