NYC medical chief apologizes to the Orthodox community for mishandling outreach during the pandemic
Image by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By Jacob Kornbluh February 23, 2021
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has learned from past mistakes and is seeking to improve outreach efforts to the Orthodox community in Brooklyn, two senior city officials said in a conference call with Jewish media representatives on Tuesday.
The acknowledgment — as the city is looking to rebuild trust in the COVID-19 vaccination drive — comes as community leaders and city politicians criticized City Hall for failing to communicate effectively about COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions during the pandemic.
“We haven’t gotten everything right — by any means,” Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, told the Forward on the call. “I think this administration really cares about the Orthodox Jewish community, and we’re sorry that it didn’t always get done correctly.”
“I don’t think it was ever an intentional mistake,” Katz added. “I think the important thing is, as we go forward, how do we do a better job?”
Katz also mentioned the passing of his Israeli father-in-law, the father of his partner Rabbi Igael “Iggy” Gurin-Malous, who died of COVID-19 in September in stressing how tough it has been for the city’s residents in the past year.
Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner who himself recently recovered from the coronavirus, said the goal is “always to do better each day” and investing the time and the resources “for the legitimate partnership that comes from any successful public health campaign” to ensure “that we never return to those dark days of last March and April.”
Chokshi maintained that the city has learned from past experiences in improving outreach and collaboration with local leaders and media outlets during the vaccination campaign.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
