Last spring, when coronavirus vaccines were just a glimmer of hope, the Trump administration awarded the first of two contracts that made no bids worth up to $ 44 million to a national consulting firm to help patients register to to be immunized, and states collect detailed data on recipients of the vaccine.
The result was VAMS, a vaccine administration management system built by Deloitte, which was rejected by most states and becomes an object of reproach. And now a vaccination expert accusing the government of offering a lower price than Deloitte’s own mass vaccination detection, accuses the company and the disease control and prevention centers of stealing her intellectual property.
Tiffany Tate, executive director of the Maryland Partnership for Prevention, made the allegation in a stop-and-stop letter received by The New York Times, and later confirmed the statement in an interview with her lawyer. Me. Tate, who has led two decades at immunization clinics in underserved communities, said she saw in May an example of Deloitte officials identified by the CDC as consultants.
The CDC was interested in buying it, she said. But the centers instead asked Deloitte to set up its own system without a competitive bidding process and dismissed warnings from state and local health officials and immunization managers that it was unwise to have an untested platform in the middle of ‘ to draw up a crisis.
The letter, dated August 30, states that the CDC’s specifications ‘reflect’ what system Tate created, including a ‘new feature’ that ‘finally found its way to VAMS’. Me. Tate, who is African-American and whose work has focused on minority communities, said the rejection was particularly painful in the depths of a pandemic affecting people of color out of proportion.
“I was shocked and very saddened because I worked with these people my whole career and respected and trusted them,” she said. Tate said in the interview. “It was very, very upsetting.”
Finally, the market spoke. VAMS, who hired the Mississippi State Health Officer, dr. Thomas E. Dobbs, described this week as ‘suboptimal’, is used in about ten states. Ms Tate offered to license her own system for $ 15 million – about a third of what the CDC committed to paying Deloitte – so the centers could give it to states for free. When the CDC rejected her, she said, she sold it to states herself.
Now 27 states and jurisdictions (not 28 states as an earlier version of this information item were reported) use it.
The CDC did not respond to a request for comment. Deloitte has Mrs. Tate’s allegations were dismissed as ‘unfounded’ in a statement issued by his spokesman.