New York City council speaker blames Mamdani administration as Legionnaires' death toll rises to 5

NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin is putting blame on Mayor Zohran Mamdani for the Legionnaires' outbreak on the Upper East Side after a fifth person has died from the disease.

Menin, in an op-ed for the New York Post, is pointing the finger at the mayor's office, saying New Yorkers deserve "real answers from Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration" and "the city missed critical opportunities to prevent additional infections."

Data from the city's health department shows 70% of the city's inspections of cooling towers since 2017 have resulted in violations.

Mamdani said Wednesday that there have not been any new cases diagnosed in at least a week, which is an indication that the outbreak may be easing up.

Eight patients still remain hospitalized and 56 have been treated and released.



The city's health commissioner was with the mayor to speak out about the outbreak on Wednesday.



"In terms of the last person to develop symptoms, they did so over a week ago, over 10 days ago, and so we feel fairly confident when you also add in the emergency room data, you are not seeing any concerning spikes or signals," said NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin. "Our focus has been and continues to be on accountability, identifying the cooling tower owner or owners that's at the source of this and holding them accountable to the full extent of the law."

Mamdani is defending his administration's response to the outbreak and said they did in fact move quickly.

However Menin has blasted the response, citing a failure of leadership, a lack of transparency and a lack of urgency.



In her op-ed, she claims that all the cooling towers should have been disinfected in the early stages, even before test results were complete.

The mayor and health commissioner argue that would have been counterproductive.

Mamdani said that the data indicates that the outbreak is over.

"We believe that we have now eliminated the source of the initial cluster, there has been no one with new symptoms reported in more than 10 days and no new diagnoses in a week," Mamdani said.

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