Indian American Dave Chokshi appointed New York City health commissioner
New York, August 5
Indian American doctor Dave Chokshi has been appointed New York City’s health commissioner to lead the next phase of city’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Appointing him, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said Chokshi was a “leader and a visionary” who was “ready to fight this fight” against the pandemic as city girded itself against the risk of a second flare up and the oncoming flu season.
Although the city, which has had more than 2,22,000 COVID-19 cases with over 23,000 deaths, is seeing only under 100 new daily cases this month.
Schools are set to start soon requiring special health measures and more businesses and offices will be opening under close monitoring.
Chokshi was the chief population health officer at the city’s Health + Hospitals Corporation, which de Blasio said was the nation’s largest health network.
He said Chokshi had been involved in city’s fight against the pandemic right from the beginning and stepped up when the city needed to build out tens of thousands of beds to meet the crisis.
Chokshi was a White House Fellow when Barak Obama was the president under the programme that brings promising young graduates to work in the President’s office and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University.
He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and was trained at Harvard Medical School.
Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy praised Chokshi’s appointment.
At the news conference where the appointment was announced, Murthy said: “For the past 15 years, I have seen Dr Chokshi touch the lives of patients and communities in profound ways as a physician and public health leader. He is of a rare breed of leaders who combine brilliance and strong judgement with humility and compassion.”
Chokshi, who grew up in Louisiana state, recalled his father’s decades-long struggle with diabetes, which he said made him realise that heath was linked to opportunity.
Chokshi said: “Opportunity is what propelled my grandfathers to take up and move from small villages in Gujarat, India, to Mumbai, the New York City of India, two generations ago. My father was the first in his family to immigrate to the United States.”
Although he will be the top health official for the city of about 8.5 million people, Chokshi said that he would continue to see patients at the city hospital in an area with many immigrants where he also had a practice.
In the city’s highly politicised environment, former health commissioner Oxiris Barbot resigned on Tuesday expressing “deep disappointment” with de Blasio, who had side-lined her and her health department, relying instead on the Health + Hospitals Corporation.
Both, de Blasio and Oxiris, have been accused of mishandling the initial response to the pandemic by not quickly responding to it. IANS
