Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
AGENCY TESTIMONY
Introduction and overview of DOHMH's role and responsibilities
0:13:48
ยท
128 sec
Dr. Michelle Morse, acting commissioner of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, introduces herself and provides an overview of the department's responsibilities and historical impact. She emphasizes the department's commitment to serving all New York City residents regardless of their background or status.
- Highlights DOHMH's 220-year history of serving New York City
- Mentions specific health crises the department has addressed, including tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19
- Emphasizes the department's role in facilitating safe and legal abortions nationwide
Michelle Morse
0:13:48
Good morning Chair Schulman, Chair Lee, and members of the committee committees.
0:13:53
I'm doctor Michelle Morse, acting commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
0:13:58
I'm joined today by our chief financial officer, Erin Anderson, and members of our senior leadership team.
0:14:03
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the department's preliminary budget for fiscal year twenty twenty six.
0:14:10
At the health department and across New York City government, we have a responsibility to serve all of New York City's residents regardless of immigration status, race, ethnicity, ability to pay, employment status, or primary language.
0:14:24
We're grateful to have a council that's so focused on the health and well-being of all New Yorkers.
0:14:29
The health department has a two hundred and twenty year history of serving New York City.
0:14:33
Today's hearing falls on World Tuberculosis Day and TB provides an apt example of our historic impact.
0:14:40
In 1850, when the department was in its infancy, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in New York City.
0:14:48
And the average age of death was 20.
0:14:51
Since nineteen o four, we've been providing tuberculosis treatment at our clinics.
0:14:56
Today, we are the main clinical provider for TB in New York City.
0:15:01
We treat nearly half of all TB patients in the city and seventy five percent of multidrug resistant cases.
0:15:07
In recent years, tuberculosis cases have been ticking up again.
0:15:11
We've confirmed eight hundred and thirty nine cases of TB in 02/2024, the highest rate in the city since 02/2008.
0:15:20
We've contained outbreaks before and we can do it again.
0:15:24
TB is of course just one example.
0:15:26
The New York City Health Department has been at the forefront of the HIV AIDS crisis of the nineteen eighties and nineties.
0:15:32
The COVID pandemic response including our historic vaccination campaign which saved the lives of an estimated forty eight thousand New Yorkers, and the facilitation of safe and legal abortions for people nationwide who lost their constitutional right to end a pregnancy in 2022.
0:15:48
For two hundred and twenty years, this agency has been a leader in public health, a field that has changed the course of human history.