There is no way to defend BDB. His actions directly led to the preventable deaths of thousands of people.

Remember NYC wasn’t the worst city in the country. It wasn’t the worst outbreak in North America. It wasn’t even just the biggest outbreak in developed countries. It was the worst in the world and not by any small margin - no other city, many of them much more crowded with larger numbers of people using public transit and much lower hospital capacity - came even close to what happened in NYC. Our case levels were stratospheric.

BDB should be in prison. He wasn’t just incompetent. He lied, repeatedly, over and over and over. He lied about masks claiming they wouldn’t work. He lied about schools claiming children couldn’t spread the virus even after thousands of teachers were already sick.He lied about the risk of keeping businesses open. He lied about the risks of attending mass events and protests. He lied about providing emergency aid to hospitals.

Then he lied about how bad things were. He lied about how bad it was in hospitals. He lied about it not affecting young people. Repeatedly.

I say “lie” bc it wasn’t him being inaccurate or ignorant or misinformed. He knew things were dangerous and said they weren’t. He knew keeping the schools open was extremely risky but thought he would lose popularity by closing them, even when so many staff were sick that most chose to stop working rather than risk death. Science officials were begging him to close things. Education officials were begging him to close the schools. The state government had to put the first large testing facility in Westchester bc he wouldn’t allow one in the city (bc he knew what it would show). He actively prevented aid from the federal gov, state gov, healthcare experts, and charities from getting to sick people and hospitals. He did nothing to get extra healthcare resources.

Never once did he accurately convey the science. He has never (and will never) take any responsibility, bc he never cared about NYC or being mayor. He just needed a springboard for a presidential run and knew he couldn’t defeat Cuomo, bc he had no experience and no qualifications and no charisma.

I was a nursing student during Covid. I will never forget what I saw. It was like a portal to hell opened up. I couldn’t believe I was still in the USA. Nurses were going in with garbage and sandwich bags as PPE. Not that there wasn’t just enough biohazard gear - there wasn’t anything. No surgical masks, no 95s, no goggles or face shields, no gowns, no infection control procedures, no ventilators, absences of basic medications - there was a shortage of everything. Nurses were dying left and right. Then the doctors started dying too. People were re-using PPE for weeks. Nobody went home to their families if they had anyplace else to stay - we all knew we would get sick.

I’d say I’m proud that I didn’t run away but really I was too shocked and scared to even think about it. I just did what I was told, like most healthcare workers. I should have left - in retrospect I was at insane risk and had basically no ability to help people. Not that people wanted help anyways. They didn’t want to wear masks. They didn’t want to be tested for Covid. And god forbid De Blasio require those things - I mean, what if he lost voters? That would be the real horror.

The city’s inaction allowed people to act like monsters. My hospital’s director committed suicide a few weeks into the peak pandemic - I’m sure many others wanted to. The trauma that healthcare professionals faced was devastating and most still can’t talk about it. It’s like being exposed to a radiation by your government.

Biggest modeling study found that if he closed schools two weeks earlier (when the CDC and city health recommended, there were tens of thousands of cases, and most large cities had shut schools down) there would have been 500,000 fewer cases in the first wave and probably more 15,000 fewer deaths.

Even a week earlier (when he was the only person who wanted them to stay open and his advisors could not even understand his thought process) would have led to 300,000 fewer cases and almost 10,000 fewer deaths. Then think of how many fewer deaths if he had required patients to wear masks, or provided testing services, or given healthcare providers PPE. I will never forgive that man. He’s evil. The fact that he can live with himself shows that he has absolutely zero moral compass. The city won’t recover from what he did in our lifetimes.

Oh yeah and before that his wife stole like $30 million dollars intended to go to mental health clinics for the homeless. The money has never been found, probably bc it’s in the Cayman Islands or Cyprus or Switzerland. Nice little nest egg for their retirement.

Comparing him to Adams is insane. Adams has some corrupt friends and has proposed some controversial policies. De Blasio lied his ass off while the city burned around him and then tried to run for President and created a fake mental health initiative so that his wife could steal millions from a program meant for free mental health clinics - I guess she was tired of doing nothing and needed some work to keep her busy and supplement what he felt was unfair compensation for his job. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say he should be in prison. His wife should be as well.

Thousands of people and hundreds of businesses would still exist if he had not been a pathological liar whose only concern was his own popularity. I don’t see how Adams (or anyone) could possibly do a worse job. He is easily the worst mayor of any city in American history and was far more corrupt than Adams. But bc he’s a liberal Democrat and his wife is Black, he’ll never face any consequences and somehow is still seen as a decent guy.