New York, NY – Mayor Bloomberg dropped a blanket of secrecy over the city’s latest swine-flu fatality — even as critics demanded details about the “underlying conditions” that contributed to the unidentified Queens woman’s death.
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Bloomberg said he was complying with the wishes of the victim’s family and indicated he’s already gone too far when he reported she was not a school employee.
City schools have been hard hit by the virus, and the first fatality, Mitchell Wiener, was an assistant principal at a Queens middle school.
Bloomberg’s “privacy” line wasn’t good enough for City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens).
“What makes this scary is there is so much we don’t know,” Gioia said.
He said the “Number 1 question” on people’s minds was what the at-risk conditions are. He called on the city to identify the factors that have caused the city’s worst swine-flu cases.
As of yesterday, the city announced only that the most recent flu victim was a Queens woman in her 50s who died Friday night or Saturday and had “underlying conditions.”
Ve should trust Bloomberg to know whats best for all the people of new york…if he thinks it would be better to keep certain issues nonpublic, his jugement should be respected just like we respect the gadolei yisroel and not challenge their authority.
i think he does whats best for nyc he is not a lame duck mayor he is running this year again for the job. about the fees that he puts up is very simple he has no joice about it, any normal businessman would do the same i just wished he would be sitting in washington
Why should her medical history be kept quiet? Is the fear that her medical problems were common enough, and that he doesn’t want to frighten the population? I could understand not reveiling her name, however it seems like the public would want to know what medical problems she had that made her so vulnerable to the flu.
Sorry, privacy is protected. We are entitled to know that the Government is doing all it can and warning us properly. Idiot bloomie already broke privacy oncein this epidemic.
The patient has the right to privacy. Period. If you want to find out about the risk factors, simply monitor the publications and alerts that are issued for healthcare providers by the City’s Dep’t of Health, the CDC, or WHO (World Health Organization).
The specific medical history of this individual may or may not be important. Simply broadcasting a medical history (besides violating all sorts of confidentiality laws) does no one any good. It takes time and effort to identify the true risk factors: one case does not prove anything (something that Councilman Gioia is obviously unaware of) . The fact that other families were more open is OK: their choice.