The city's health department missed early detection of Covid-19 as it listened to CDC officials.
The department's leadership decided in early 2020 to strictly adhere to the federal centers of strict Covid-19 testing guidelines for disease control and prevention.
Weiss, a former “surveillance director” at the Big Apple's Ministry of Health, was monitoring the situation from Trench at the time.
He said he was unhappy with CDC guidelines with limited testing for patients suspected of returning to the US from Wuhan, China and elsewhere.
Many New Yorkers only exhibit mild flu-like symptoms from COVID and were not tested by CDC standards.
So it was possible they didn't realize they had it. More importantly, it can infect others with poor health and immunocompromised or severe preexisting conditions or illnesses.
At one time without vaccines, Covid has turned into death sentences for many elderly people and others with serious illnesses.
“I was worried that I would miss an opportunity to prevent the onslaught,” Weiss said in a limited test book.
“According to the strict CDC standards for testing, cases were missing. …The overwhelming probability supported mild cases arriving in New York, but we felt our hands were tied up.”
He said other people who tracked the illness wanted to test residents suspected of having even mild cases of Covid-19 to launch a public health campaign earlier.
“But we were voted and stuck to the CDC standards. …We had to remove the CDC script,” writes Weiss, 67.
“It was a horrifying place and caught between suspected incidents and the inability to test them,” he said. “It's four weeks after the pandemic and we haven't yet identified any Covid-19 cases in New York. An email to my colleague is pleading for us to receive a zero response from the CDC stiffness.”
He said Sharon Butter, a former department employee who now works for the Los Angeles Health Department, was sending specimens to CDCs that were not meeting testing standards as Big Apple agents were still trying to “stubbornly” fight back.
The CDC has had strict standards for testing, in some cases, due to limited testing capabilities, Weiss said.
On January 29, 2020, Brooklyn Hospital reported a patient in his late 40s who was extremely ill and on a ventilator. His flu and RSV tests were negative, but he was not tested for Covid.
“The patient himself did not travel, but he could touch the traveller. …I was voted and the patient was not tested until a few months later,” Weiss said.
It turns out that there was a community for ride-sharing drivers. He suffered from a fundamental illness and died in May 2021 from a Covid-related issue.
Before the first Covid case was confirmed on March 1, 2020, approximately 240 cases of Covid-19 were reported to the city's health department.
“Covid-19 was clearly in circulation in New York a month before the first recognized positive cases,” Weiss wrote.
“The delay in testing capabilities have slowed recognition of the circulatory virus and impaired public health responses until community communication was established.”
In a subsequent interview with a post about his book, Weiss said that if Covid's communication is detected early, “it could save a life.”
At the very least, residents may have been warned to quarantine and wear masks to protect themselves and others, he said.
Neither the CDC nor the New York City Health Department responded to requests to post comments.
Weiss' book too:
- He condemned Mayor de Blasio's handling of the pandemic at the time.
Weiss was furious when de Blasio mentioned a Bronx child who tested positive for Covid-19.
“Children have become targeted for abuse from their classmates and the community. …We enraged and vowed not to share information that could repeat the atrocities we witnessed,” Weiss wrote.
He told the post that city health department officials actually donated money to students.
“NYC contact tracing has not been effective in slowing the spread of Covid-19. Anyone who claims it's not, put lipstick on the pig,” Weiss said.
He said screenings of students at Covid-19 schools are also being used in excess.
It is fair to argue that it is appropriate to try different strategies to help tame a once-in-a-century pandemic.
“But it cannot justify the tenacity that cities have been caught up in ineffective strategies,” he said. “We need to move towards a more acceptable balance of individual freedom and community protection.”
Data shows that 46,879 deaths in the city have been linked to Covid-19 and its variants since the original outbreak. The Big Apple had around 3.7 million Covid cases and 241,203 hospitalizations.
Weiss retired in 2023 after saying that it was to call for a run of political correctness.
