PHILADELPHIA (AP) – When Philadelphia started getting its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, it looked like it would have a partnership with someone who could quickly get a mass vaccination room up and running.
City Hall officials may have been looking across the skyline at world-renowned health care providers at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University or Jefferson Health.
Instead, they selected a 22-year-old psychology student with some shaky start-ups on his resume. And last week, amid concerns over its qualifications and Philly Fighting’s COVID’s lucrative status, the city closed its operations in the downtown convention center.
‘Where were all the people with credentials? Why did a child have to come in to help the city? said the student, Andrei Doroshin, in an interview with The Associated Press.
‘I’m a freaking student. But do you know what? We did the work. We vaccinated 7,000 people, ”said the student from Drexel University. “It was us who did our part in this crazy time.”
City officials said they gave him the job because he and his friends organized one of the community groups that set up COVID-19 test sites in the city last year. But they shut down the vaccine after learning that Doroshin had changed his privacy notice to sell potential data, a development he quickly mentions.
It is not clear when the city will find a new site operator.
“They did a pretty good job of giving the vaccinations. They have apparently decided that they would deserve this information, which was wrong, and we have ended our relationship with them, ‘Mayor Jim Kenney said at a news conference on Tuesday, referring to the work of local newspapers to raise concerns. . “And that’s the end of them.”
Doroshin also admitted that he took home four doses of the Pfizer vaccine and administered them to friends, although he is not a nurse or a licensed health practitioner. He said he did so only after exhausting other options. There were 100 extra doses that would expire that night, and the site could only gather 96 eligible recipients, he said.
“They had to go into an arm or be thrown out,” said Doroshin, who said he had done intramuscular injections before. “I felt ethically good. … I did nothing illegal. ‘
State and local prosecutors are now considering the question.
Many believe the situation expresses a greater point about the health care system in Philadelphia and nationwide.
Public health budgets were hit hard before the pandemic, which ill-equipped local and state governments to implement a mass vaccination program. This scrambled them to COVID-19 partners.
“I think there’s a place in our health care system for our innovative partners,” said Julia Lynch, a health policy expert who teaches Penn. ‘But maybe this is not the time to experiment with disruptors? Maybe this is the time we need to move on to a healthcare delivery infrastructure that works like a well-oiled machine?
She is also concerned that city data shows that only 12% of the city’s vaccinations went to black residents, making up 42% of the city’s population. She, like others, hoped the work might have gone to a more established group like the Black Doctors Consortium, which has tested and vaccinated people in low-income areas in the city over the past year.
Lucinda Ayers, 74, took the opportunity to book an appointment on Feb. 12 through Doroshin’s website at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and wondered if the city would not have to help him comply.
“They vaccinated people. I’m on the fence about it, “said Ayers, who was unlucky enough to find another appointment, even though he spent hours online. “There is so much lack of clarity about the information that comes out.”
While Doroshin was working on his graduate degree, he switched from COVID-19 testing to vaccine work when he heard about the city’s need. He said he borrowed $ 250,000 from a family friend for start-up costs, and the city – through nothing more than a verbal agreement – gave him a cut in the vaccine supply, with health workers as the top priority.
He said he had agreed to pay $ 1 million to rent the conference center for six months, and he is expected to charge $ 500 million a month once it is up and running. He employed about 30 people, although at least some doctors, nurses and nursing students who did the injections were voluntary, he said.
“I would take a salary,” he said. “In a perfect world, I wanted to vaccinate Philly in six months and then apply for my doctorate.”
Dr Thomas Farley, the city’s health commissioner, said this week that the group had a good record of testing, so we decided to give them a chance to run mass clinics, and the first mass clinic went pretty well. . ‘
For now, the city has promised to make sure people who get their first vaccines there can get their booster shots.
“It certainly shows why we need a real public health care system,” said councilor Helen Gym, noting that two private hospitals in the city have been closed since 2019, while the city remains one of the few major U.S. cities without a public hospital. .
She cites the explosion of the vaccine as a serious, serious failure.
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