When Philadelphia started getting its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines, it seemed like it was working with someone who could quickly get a mass vaccination site.
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 his qualifications and Philly Fighting Covid’s for-profit status, the city closed its operations in the city center’s convention center.
‘Where were all the people with credentials? Why did a child have to come in to help the city? ‘s student Andrei Doroshin said 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 some of this information, which was wrong, and we ended our relationship with them, ‘Jim Kenney, the mayor, told a news conference on Tuesday, citing the work of local newspapers’ 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 … there was nothing I did that was illegal.”
State and local prosecutors are now considering the question.
Many believe the situation is making a bigger impact on the healthcare 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 for 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 distress. He said he borrowed $ 250,000 from a family friend for start-up costs, and the city – through nothing but a verbal agreement – gave him a cut in the supply of vaccines, with the highest priority as health workers.
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 if it is fully operational. 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 PhD.”
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 definitely 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 cited the explosion of vaccines as a serious, serious failure.