Mayor Eric Adams cleared his public schedule this week for multiple doctor appointments and tests, with his office stating that he “hasn’t been feeling his best” but will still do his job.
Fabien Levy, the mayor’s deputy mayor of communications, announced in social media posts late Sunday that Adams will have a “limited” public schedule due to an unspecified medical situation.
“Like every other New Yorker, Mayor Adams has a right to privacy when it comes to personal matters, but we will continue to communicate in the unlikely event he is unable to fully discharge his duties on any particular day,” Levy posted.
Since taking office in 2022, Adams twice cleared most of his schedule while disclosing he had tested positive for COVID. On both those occasions, he shared that diagnosis publicly.
Spokesperson Kayla Mamalek-Altus said on Monday that Adams is “still doing his job, just not feeling his best so seeing doctors and not doing public events.”
If the mayor becomes temporarily unable to serve, his first deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer will fill in, the mayor’s team said, although the City Charter states that the public advocate assumes the roles and responsibilities of the mayor if he is sick. Asked about the apparent discrepancy, Mamalek-Altus said it’s “because we’re just talking about this week. Not like he’s stepping down.”
Sunday night’s announcement came a week after Adams was widely criticized for abruptly cancelling his planned Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day appearances to rush in the middle of the night to Washington, D.C. after receiving a last-minute invitation to the inauguration. He ended up watching President Donald Trump’s swearing-in from an overflow room.
Adams has denied speculation that he has lobbied Trump for a pardon even as he has claimed, without evidence, that the charges against him were brought by a politically vengeful Biden istration upset that the Democratic mayor of America’s biggest city had publicly criticized its border policies.
The historic trial of the sitting mayor on corruption charges is set to begin on April 21, just two months before New York City’s Democratic primary.
Adams has run a his legal defense fund. He doesn’t have a website, a known campaign office, or much staff.
Although his team cited Adams’ right to privacy, other New York City mayors have at times disclosed their health issues. In 1987, reporters extensively covered then-Mayor Ed Koch’s stroke — including interviews with his doctors.
In 2000, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment was also reported in detail.
