The New York City Health Department said it cannot complete an investigation into who it says infected four infants with herpes through a Jewish circumcision rite because the boys’ families will not identify the mohels.
The same day the city’s health commissioner confirmed that two mohels have been banned from practicing the risky circumcision ritual metzitzah b’peh, the health department quietly adopted a more stringent policy against mohels linked to newborns who develop herpes simplex virus-1.
The city is zero for six in garnering full cooperation from the Hasidic community in rooting out mohels involved in neonatal herpes cases, but Mayor de Blasio says he still needs to evaluate whether a deal with the community is “working effectively or not.”