Thanks, Dr. Dave

As he exits city service, give an attaboy to Dr. Dave Chokshi, who as the city’s health commissioner helped keep hospitals from overflowing and lives from being cut short. Most importantly under Chokshi — and his boss, Bill de Blasio — New York, which of course bore the brunt of COVID-19’s first wave, took just about every imaginable step to make vaccines available and encourage people to roll up their sleeves, creating a first-in-the-nation proof-of-shot requirement for indoor dining and entertainment venues and gyms and demanding that all 325,000-plus municipal employees get jabbed. The strong medicine drove up inoculation rates high enough early enough to protect the five boroughs from the worst of the delta and omicron waves. The Health Department’s own study claims 48,000 deaths were spared.

So too, Chokshi, a regular presence in de Blasio’s daily briefings, proved himself capable of communicating with clarity and calm. The guy, it turned out, has got a voice and face for TV — including on commercials that pop up more often than ads selling detergent and cars and beer combined.

Chokshi made missteps; he was wrong, for instance, to argue for keeping mask mandates in place for the youngest children even after they were gone for everyone else. Preschoolers are minimally vulnerable to COVID, and face coverings impact their learning and development. If kindergarteners and first-graders can go naked faced whether or not they’re vaccinated, so can 3- and 4-year-olds. And the city’s private employer mandate may well prove unenforceable.

But making decisions in the middle of a pandemic is tough work. It would’ve been too much to expect him to bat 1,000. Dr. Dave has a record of which to be proud. Best of luck to him, and to his successor, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, who we hope will never have to contend with a surge of his own.