‘I don’t give two rats’ a**es about your cops’: Fury over NYC health official’s response to plea for masks

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New York City’s own nasty woman, health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, an appointee of Mayor Bill de Blasio, is facing caustic, profanity-laced backlash and demands for her termination over her heartless indifference toward the city’s cops and the effects that the coronavirus pandemic has had on them.

During a phone call in late March with her, NYPD chief of department Terence Monahan desperately pleaded for more masks, according to sources who spoke with the New York Post.

“Monahan asked Barbot for 500,000 masks. … 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,” the Post reported late Wednesday.

Barbot reportedly replied by telling him she could only give 50,000, period, and then chastising him for pleading for more.

I don’t give two rats’ a–es about your cops,” she reportedly said. “I need them for others.”

By Thursday morning, her remarks had gone viral and triggered raging backlash, including from NYC’s Sergeants Benevolent Association, which posted a tweet describing Barbot as a “b—h” and issued a statement calling for her termination.

“I am not surprised by such vile words coming from an appointee of Mayor de Blasio, whose disdain for law enforcement is legendary,” SBA president Ed Mullins said.

“But Dr. Barbot’s comments make it clear she has no personal or professional regard for the police. The primary concern of a medical professional in such an important position should be the safety of all people, and her attitude places police officers in great jeopardy and makes her unfit for the job.”

NYC’s Police Benevolent Association soon followed suit with its own statement.

Look:

The NYC Department of Health has admitted the exchange occurred but claimed Barbot “apologized for her contribution to the exchange.”

It’s not clear what Monahan’s so-called “contribution to the exchange” had been.

“During the height of COVID, while our hospitals were battling to keep patients alive, there was a heated exchange between the two where things were said out of frustration but no harm was wished on anyone,” DOH press secretary Patrick Gallahue reportedly said.

Yet according to reports, Monahan wound up having to appeal to City Hall and federal officials to get the masks needed for his cops — and this despite being aware “that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had a large stash of masks, ventilators and other equipment stored in a New Jersey warehouse,” according to the Post.

“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,” the outlet reported.

The appeal to City Hall reportedly occurred during a meeting at the Office of Emergency Management headquarters in Brooklyn in March.

The Post’s sources said they witnessed a “very tense moment” when Monahan complained directly to the mayor — and right in front of Barbot — about the NYPD’s need for PPE.

“For weeks, we haven’t gotten an answer,” he reportedly said.

“De Blasio, who was seated between Monahan and Barbot, asked her, ‘Oxiris, what is he talking about?'” the Post reported, citing its sources. “When Monahan said the gear was vital to keeping cops safe, de Blasio said, ‘You definitely need it,’ and told Barbot, ‘Oxiris, you’re going to fix this right now.'”

This isn’t Barbot’s first rodeo when it comes to controversy. She initially downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and urged locals to attend the Lunar New Year in Chinatown in late January.

Then in early February, she promised local New Yorkers that “their risk is low and our city preparedness is high.”

“We know that this virus can be transmitted from one individual to another, but that it is typically people who live together. There is no risk at this point in time…about having it being transmitted in casual contact,” she said.

Weeks later in early March, she falsely claimed, “We know that there’s currently no indication that it’s easy to transmit by casual contact … We want New Yorkers to go about their daily lives, ride the subway, take the bus, go see your neighbors.”

Listen:

It’s not clear why de Blasio chose this woman to serve as the city’s health commissioner, though it does appear she’s about as qualified for the job of health commissioner as de Blasio is for the job of mayor.

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