NY Times Article: How Delays and Unheeded Warnings Hindered New York?s Virus Fight
The federal response was chaotic. Even so, the state?s and city?s own initial efforts failed to keep pace with the outbreak, The Times found.
From the earliest days of the crisis, state and city officials were also hampered by a chaotic and often dysfunctional federal response, including significant problems with the expansion of coronavirus testing, which made it far harder to gauge the scope of the outbreak.
Normally, New York would get help from Washington in such a time, as it did after Sept. 11. But President Trump in February and early March minimized the coronavirus threat, clashing with his own medical experts and failing to marshal the might of the federal government soon after cases emerged in the United States.
As a result, state and city officials often had to make decisions early on without full assistance from the federal government.
Even so, the initial efforts by New York officials to stem the outbreak were hampered by their own confused guidance, unheeded warnings, delayed decisions and political infighting, The New York Times found.
State and city officials blamed the confusing messages on shifting guidance from the federal government.
But by the second week in March, as the virus continued to spread widely, Mr. de Blasio also clashed over messaging with his own Health Department.
The mayor wanted widespread testing, but senior Health Department officials believed it was a waste of limited resources. They urged instead a public awareness campaign to tell people with mild symptoms to stay home and not infect others, or themselves, by going to testing centers.
City Hall blocked the department from releasing that message to the public, until the mayor eventually backed down in the third week in March.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/nyregion/new-york-coronavirus-response-delays.html
