NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan announces his resignation

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New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the COVID czar who is credited with steering the city during the critical period of the pandemic, announced his resignation Sept. 23, 2024.

“It has truly been the honor of my lifetime to serve the city I love, where I started and raised a family for nearly 15 years, and to be your Health Commissioner, the city’s doctor to 8.3 million fellow New Yorkers,” Dr. Vasan announced, thanking Mayor Eric Adams, Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, and the entire administration for giving him the opportunity.

Vasan is among several top officials in the Adams administration to step down, but his resignation is not linked to the ongoing probe being conducted. He served nearly three years, and will be leaving his position as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in early January 2025.

“As anyone with a family—or a chosen family—knows, you are never alone in service. My wife and three young children have served alongside me, bearing the brunt of my absence and shouldering so much. I’m grateful for their love and have chosen that now it is time to support them and their wellbeing. While this was a hard decision, it was the right one for me and my family,” said Dr. Vasan in the statement released by his office.

However, he will continue his clinical work as a primary care physician, and teaching, “while supporting initiatives to advance health, equity, and access across this city and this nation,” he said.

The Indian American physician dwelt on his tenure at some length in his announcement.

“From day one, I have made focus, ambition, and integrity a key part of my leadership. The state of the department and of our public health system is strong. I’m deeply confident that we have put in place critical initiatives to benefit New Yorkers, and we have the right team to continue this important work and keep us safe and healthy for years and generations to come,” he said.

“When I was appointed as New York City Health Commissioner in December 2021, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was raging, infecting tens of thousands, taking the lives of New Yorkers, and it was not clear what 2022 had in store for us, including an mpox outbreak followed by New York’s first case of polio in a decade, and all while COVID-19 continued to linger and embed itself in our city,” Dr. Vasan recalled.

“At the Department of Health, we took those challenges—and so many others—head on, even diseases that many haven’t heard of, because that is the work of preventing public health issues before they occur,” he said, adding, “We have accomplished so much in the past few years, from leading the city out of the pandemic and a period of crisis, to heralding a new era of public health.”

He credited his team with making foundational and innovative new investments in health care ranging from the long-term public health agenda, HealthyNYC, to the city’s Abortion Access Hub hotline, to mental health investments in 988, clubhouses and “NYCTeenspace,” a free text, call,

or chat counseling service for teens between 13-17 years old. The call service has already served thousands of New York City teens, Dr. Vasan said.

“Alongside our work to protect young people from the harmful effects of social media, as well as relieve New Yorkers of $2 billion in medical debt, and our behind the scenes investments in our data systems and worksite wellness, I am so proud of what we have accomplished together,” he said, calling it “the best job” in the public health sphere, one that he would cherish all his life.

He described his 7,000 staff at the Department of Health as “the best public health workers in the world.”

“Together, we’ve reshaped public health in New York City for the future,” Dr. Vasan concluded.

Dr. Vasan is a primary care physician, epidemiologist and public health expert with nearly 20 years of experience working to improve physical and mental health, social welfare and public policy for marginalized populations in New York City, nationally and globally, says his bio on the NYC.gov website.

Since 2014 he has served on the faculty at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and he continues to see patients as a primary care internist in the Division of General Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Dr. Vasan most recently served as the President and CEO of Fountain House, a national nonprofit fighting to improve health, increase opportunity, and end social and economic isolation for people most impacted by mental illness.

From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Vasan served as the founding Executive Director of the Health Access Equity Unit at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Early in his career, Dr. Vasan spent nearly a decade at the intersection of global health, HIV and primary care, working with the nonprofit Partners In Health (PIH) in Rwanda, Lesotho and Boston, and at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda and Geneva.

Dr. Vasan received his BA in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles; his ScM in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health; his MD from the University of Michigan; and his PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has been widely published in major journals.