Nineteen minutes after it started, a New York City Health Department press conference on Friday ended after Heshy Tischler, a community activist and radio talk show host, repeatedly interrupted it.
“Your reports are lies. You are lying and I won’t allow lies to be given out,” Tischler yelled at Dr. Mitchell Katz, who heads the city’s public hospital system.
Tischler told The Jewish Press that the city’s intent in holding the press conference in Boro Park (on 18th Ave. and 56th St.) was “to embarrass us.”
Tischler said, “[Dr. Katz] went on the dais with no paperwork, and he said there’s an uptick three times the amount. I said, ‘Have you been to our hospitals? Where are you getting these numbers from?’
“Now, I go to the [Maimonides] hospital [in Boro Park] every single day. Not every other day, every day. [An] assemblyman told me there are six new patients in the hospital. I went to the hospital. Zero. I went to the ICU. Zero. I spoke to the nurses, zero. I went back Motzei Shabbos – maybe people didn’t know what was going on. Still zero.
“So this guy comes to embarrass the Jewish community, and I wasn’t going to let him tell the whole world that the Jews are infecting the entire city. He’s lying.
Asked about an increase in mask-wearing in Boro Park, Tischler said, “We were threatened by Mayor de Blasio. There is $160 million dollars on the line, so the schools are all scared. The mayor figured out a way to punish the schools. That’s why we’re wearing masks.”