Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Welcome! We hope that you enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.
Thank you for signing in! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Checking back? Since you viewed this item previously you can read it again.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Please purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.
Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code.
Promotional Rates were found for your code.
Sorry, an error occurred.
do not remove
Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. High around 25F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..
Mostly cloudy with snow showers around in the evening. Low 16F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Updated: January 22, 2022 @ 1:03 am
State Health Department Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett speaks at a COVID-19 briefing in New York City last month. Senators voted to officially appoint Bassett as the state’s 17th health commissioner along party lines Thursday.
State Health Department Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett speaks at a COVID-19 briefing in New York City last month. Senators voted to officially appoint Bassett as the state’s 17th health commissioner along party lines Thursday.
ALBANY — Senators confirmed Dr. Mary T. Bassett to serve as New York’s 17th health commissioner Thursday with Republicans in the minority voting against her appointment, highlighting their concerns about the former New York City health commissioner’s stances on how to address substance use and overdoses.
The state Constitution allows the upper house to confirm the governor’s appointments of nonelected state officials and court judges after hearings and questioning of the candidate.
Senators voted 43-20 in favor to confirm Bassett, 66, as commissioner of the Health Department to officially replace Dr. Howard Zucker, who left the post Dec. 1 after being forced to resign for his involvement in scandals from former governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration.
“Most of the work that she has done in the decades that she has been working in public health have been always about trying to erase those health inequities, which exist in health systems all across our country and our state,” said Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera, D-Bronx, from the floor Thursday.
Rivera noted the differences from Cuomo’s administration, adding “she said very clearly that she would never do something which she felt, even if it was said to her ‘This is something that you need to do for political reasons,’ that she would never do something that would put the health and well being of New Yorkers at risk.”
The 20 Republican senators in the chamber’s minority unanimously rejected Bassett’s nomination, citing their skepticism she would not act without political influence from Gov. Hochul, a Democrat; and her support of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Sen. Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, voted against Bassett’s confirmation.
“While i appreciate and respect Dr. Bassett’s credentials, I cannot in good conscience support a nominee who will not commit to examining the failures of the pandemic response under the disgraces Cuomo administration.”
Ortt cited what he called endless arbitrary mandates, discriminatory race-based COVID treatment, infringing on New Yorkers’ second amendment rights, and state-sanctioned drug injection sites as policies that are not to the benefit of residents’ short- and long-term health.
“I am disappointed that the Hochul administration has not learned from the failures of the disgraced Cuomo administration,” Ortt said. “We need an independent Health Department that can tackle the COVID, drug, and violent crime epidemics without politics or political correctness clouding their judgement.”
Members of the Senate Health and Finance committees questioned Bassett, 66, for several hours Wednesday before voting to move her nomination for a vote.
“I am honored to be officially appointed to serve as the 17th New York state health commissioner, and I thank Gov. Kathy Hochul for entrusting me and the state Senate for this vote of confidence,” Bassett said in a statement Thursday. “As I have said from the beginning, I will continue to be open and transparent and make decisions based on science, data and improving the health of all New Yorkers. I will continue to work with our experts at the Department of Health and our partners at all levels of government on the COVID-19 response and other critical public health issues.”
Bassett served as the commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2014 through summer 2018 and oversaw the department’s response to Ebola, Legionnaire’s disease and other outbreaks.
Sen. Phil Boyle’s negative vote was sealed when Bassett would not rule out a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students during committee hearings.
“That’s the wrong policy,” said Boyle, R-Bay Shore. “We should not mandate our students and people watching around the state.”
He was also quick to criticize Bassett’s belief in decriminalizing personal possession of drugs and her support for supervised injection sites to prevent overdose deaths after the nation’s first opened in New York City in November.
Several members in the conference questioned Bassett’s ideology and its affect on the health of New Yorkers.
Sen. Sue Serino, R-Hyde Park, expressed disappointment Bassett had not read the controversial March 2020 order to send COVID-positive nursing home patients home to their facility to recover issued by her predecessor Dr. Zucker. The policy was intended to free up hospital beds, but many continue to demand an investigation into the order’s impact on virus deaths in adult-care facilities.
“We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past, and that starts by unraveling exactly what went wrong,” Serino said. “I understand Dr. Basset’s desire to look forward and move into the future. We all share that desire. But in order to do that effectively, as all scientists know, we have a duty to evaluate and learn from past practices.”
Bassett most recently worked as director of François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and FXB professor of practice of health and human rights in the department of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Senators also voted to approve John “Janno” as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chair, 56-7, and CEO and Elizabeth Velez to serve on the MTA board, 60-3.
Daily News Regional Editor Ben Beagle contributed to this report.
Johnson Newspapers 7.1
