Howard Zucker

Howard A. Zucker (born September 6, 1959) served as the 16th commissioner of the New York State Department of Health from 2015-2021. He was appointed to the position by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015 and had served as Acting Commissioner the prior year after the abrupt resignation of Nirav Shah.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he appeared frequently in media as the ultimate expert on the status of the pandemic in the State of New York.

In January 2021, the New York Attorney General’s office released a report showing that the New York Department of Health under-counted statewide nursing home deaths by as much as 50%. Both Governor Cuomo and Zucker were blamed for the under-count.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, Zucker was a White House Fellow and latter Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services under Tommy Thompson. Afterwards, he served as the assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization.