De Blasio Resisted on Coronavirus. Then Aides Said Theyd Quit. – The New York Times

For most of last week, as Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to urge New Yorkers to mostly go about their daily lives sending their children to school, frequenting the citys businesses some of his top aides were furiously trying to change the mayors approach to the coronavirus outbreak.

There had been arguments and shouting matches between the mayor and some of his advisers; some top health officials had even threatened to resign if he refused to accept the need to close schools and businesses, according to several people familiar with the internal discussions.

Teachers were threatening not to show up to school on Monday. A growing number of public health experts and politicians were calling for much of the city to be shut down to curb the spread of the virus.

On Sunday, the mayor was shown a graph depicting the sharp upward trajectory of the coronavirus epidemic curve, and another showing the capacity of the citys health systems to handle the influx.

The information painted a disastrous picture of the days and weeks to come unless the mayor took immediate action.

We all realized from the public health outcomes and political reality this needed to happen, said a person familiar with the mayors deliberations who spoke under the condition of anonymity. He just had to process it himself.

A few hours later, Mr. de Blasio announced a plan for schools to close starting Monday until at least April 20. Later that evening, the mayor announced a plan to close bars and restaurants.

Clearly the city moved in a completely different direction yesterday, not just on the school system, but everything else, said Michael Mulgrew, the president of the citys teachers union, who was among those trying to persuade the mayor to shift his position. All the policy. It was sudden.

As fears over the coronavirus outbreak rose with each new reported case in New York City, Mr. de Blasio has tried to do his best to project a sense of calm. He stressed that the vast majority of people who contracted the virus in New York would recover after a mild illness.

He also continued to travel from Gracie Mansion in Manhattan to work out at a Y.M.C.A. in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a longstanding routine that has garnered intense criticism.

Even on Monday, hours before all gyms in New York had to close, the mayor was seen getting one last workout in at the Y attracting a new furious round of criticism.

No current or former staff member should be asked to defend this, Rebecca Katz, a former adviser to Mr. de Blasio, wrote on Twitter. Jonathan Rosen, once one of Mr. de Blasios closest advisers, agreed with Ms. Katz on Twitter, calling the mayors gym visit pathetic, self-involved, inexcusable.

In a subsequent interview, Ms. Katz said, Staffers are working 24 hours to put together plans for the city. Thats not the right message to send right now.

The mayors press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, said that the Y.M.C.A. was a huge part of his and his familys life, adding, Its clear thats about to change, and before that, the mayor wanted to visit a place that keeps him grounded one last time.

Mr. Cuomos order does not take effect until 8 p.m. on Monday, at which point all gyms, casinos and movie theaters in the state will be closed, and bars and restaurants will be limited to takeout and delivery.

In many ways, the mayors visit to the gym on Monday captured his reluctance to completely embrace the need for radical changes. Even after declaring a state of emergency on Thursday, Mr. de Blasio continued to suggest that more drastic actions were not yet needed.

The mayors stance derived from a two-part strategy to deal with the coronavirus: containment and mitigation.

City health officials said that the goal is not to necessarily reduce the overall number of cases, but to slow its spread and stretch it out over time. Doing so would lower the number of cases at any given time, which health officials say is of critical importance.

What youre doing is blunting the height so you never have the day when there is 5,000 people, 10,000, or 20,000 people looking for health care and theyre so overcapacity that grandma cant get chemotherapy, Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis, the deputy commissioner for disease control at New York Citys Department of Health, explained in a speech last week to doctors and medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Capacity of health care that is what this is all about.

Mitigation calls for social-distancing measures, such as reducing crowds by banning large-scale events like sporting events and concerts, and closing schools.

Mr. de Blasio had been resistant to embracing shutdowns, saying he was worried about how they would affect the citys sense of normalcy and what impact they would have on the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

People close to the mayor said that as the virus spread, he knew that the city would need to shut more things down; the debate was over the timing.

We need people to have their livelihoods, Mr. de Blasio said on Friday, the day after he signed the declaration of emergency. We need folks to show up at work.

In his first six years in office, the mayor has received praise for leading the city through multiple global health epidemics such as a Legionnaires disease outbreak in 2015 that killed at least a dozen people.

When an Ebola scare ripped through the city during his first year as mayor, Mr. de Blasio hugged an Ebola patient and ate at a restaurant where that man had dined, part of a strategy to reduce panic and to urge New Yorkers to mostly go about their lives.

The mayor has said that he was trying to strike a balance between public health and affecting peoples livelihoods.

But as more New Yorkers tested positive for the coronavirus, it was clear that more decisive action was needed.

The turning point came over the weekend, as numerous advisers met with Mr. de Blasio and showed him the charts of the disease trajectory and the citys ability to handle the cases.

Mr. de Blasio acknowledged on Sunday that seeing the latest models and talking thorough the ramifications helped change his mind.

Another person close to the deliberations described the mayor as an intelligent over-processor. He doesnt trust experts in the field until he has processed it himself, the person said.

Michael Gold contributed reporting.

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De Blasio Resisted on Coronavirus. Then Aides Said Theyd Quit. - The New York Times