The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Evidence Based Medicine did what is known as a review study of the dangers of metziztah b'peh (MBP), the direct-mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done by haredi and some Modern Orthodox mohels after cutting off the baby's foreskin. But that study is not peer reviewed. It is also flawed, and its authors have conflicts of interest they did not declare.
The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Evidence Based Medicine did what is known as a review study of the dangers of metziztah b'peh (MBP), the direct-mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done by haredi and some Modern Orthodox mohels after cutting off the baby's foreskin. But that study is not peer reviewed. It is also flawed, and its authors have conflicts of interest they did not declare.
The study was actually done by one analyst, Brian Leas, and a project director who also conducted the internal review of Leas' work, Dr. Joel Betesh.
Both Leas and Betesch are connected to the Orthodox community, as you can see below.
Betesh was honored by the Philadelphia Kollel, a haredi institution, and was on its fundraising dinner committee at one time.
Leas was on an Orthodox email list (see the invitation to an Orthodox Torah study class at a kosher restaurant posted below) and is Orthodox affiliated.
Penn would not release the study to me or to at least one other journalist seeking it. When I asked Susan Phillips, Senior Vice President of PENN Medicine if it was peer reviewed she replied, "Never! It was an internal literature review."
The study appears to have been done specifically to help Agudath Israel's lawsuit against he City of New York seeking to block implementation of the city's new requirement that mohels must give an informed consent form to parents before the circumcision if MBP will be done.
Neither Betesh or Leas divulged their connection to Orthodoxy.
And while their study claims that previous studies were flawed because they did not have enough definitive information to properly reach the conclusions they reached, Betesh and Leas failed to note that was due to lack of cooperation from haredi mohels and haredi rabbis, although they do mention that some parents of the sickened babies refused to cooperate with Department of Health and Mental Hygiene investigators.
Leas is not a physician.
Betesh is not a pediatric infectious disease specialist or an epidemiologist. He is an internist.
The Penn study says that "the Center for Evidence-based Practice at Penn Medicine has been asked to review the clinical evidence,” but it does not say who made that request or what entity that person or persons represent.
When told that it appeared that the Penn study had been written to help Agudath Israel of America and other haredi groups in their lawsuit against NYC, Penn’s Phillip's did not reply. She also did not reply when I asked how Agudath Israel of America got what was supposed to be an internal Center for Evidence-based Practice study.
Since Penn's study was completed, two more studies have been published showing a link between MBP and HSV-1 infection, and two more babies in New York City have reportedly contracted HSV-1 from MBP.
The study concludes that “the available evidence indicates that circumcision with direct orogenital suction may be a risk factor for infection” and says that because HSV-1 can kill babies, “exposure to the infection should be carefully considered."
Agudath Israel of America clearly misrepresented the study's conclusion, which does not fully support its position.
Even so, the inescapable conclusion is that two Orthodox Jewish employees of Penn, at least one with close ties to a haredi institution and local haredi leadership, conducted a brief study for Agudath Israel of America (or for one of its supporters) with the intent of bolstering Agudath Israel of America's lawsuit against the city, and did so using a degree of deception.
The Penn review study: