New York State health officials are investigating a New York health care provider in connection with an alleged violation of the protocol as part of the state’s introduction of the coronavirus vaccine.
ParCare Community Health Network in Brooklyn may have fraudulently obtained a COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and passed it on to members of the public – in violation of the state’s plan to administer it first to frontline health care workers, as well as residents and nursing homes, ”said New York Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.
The company told Reuters it was cooperating with the criminal investigation and said it was’ to provide critical health care services and administer COVID-19 vaccinations to those qualified to receive them under the guidelines of the Department of Health in New York, which includes first-line health workers and first responders. ”
A report appeared last week in The New York Times outlining how New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital provided access to the vaccine to some hospital staff who are not at risk of contracting the virus.
Staff at other hospitals told Times they were internally concerned, but that they did not speak out for fear of professional retaliation.
The New York State Deployment Program states that high-risk individuals such as doctors, nurses and first responders have priority if they are to receive the vaccine.
“We take it very seriously and [the New York Department of Health] will assist the state police in criminal investigations into this matter, ”Zucker said of the ParCare allegations.