Dr. Hasan Gokal decided to donate 10 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that were about to go to waste, in which he considered the decision responsible. Everything that came next it was “an absolute and absolute shock” and “mind-bogglingly unexpected,” he told CBS News.
The Houston physician worked as an emergency response physician in the Harris County Department of Public Health of Texas for the Office of Preparedness. He was also the medical director for the county’s implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In late December last year, he oversaw a vaccination event for emergency workers – the county’s first public vaccination event, he said. In two weeks, he would be fired and charged with theft for his actions that night.
When the event came to an end, one last person showed up for a chance. Thus, a new vial of Moderna vaccine containing 11 doses for application of the vaccine was punctured, which activated the six-hour period for the remaining 10 doses.
The remaining 10 doses needed to be in the arms in six hours or they would have to be thrown away, because they would have expired. Gokal said he was determined not to waste them. “This is a county of 5 million people and we had the first 3 million doses. There was no space to throw anything away. Never,” he said. “When you have something so precious, life-saving, it would hurt to throw it away.”
Gokal said his first reaction was to offer doses to workers at the event, but they had already been vaccinated or refused. Emergency teams had already left the scene and the police there had already taken the vaccine or said they wanted to wait before taking it.
With no other options, Gokal called a Harris County public health officer in charge of operations to share his plan to find 10 people and administer the remaining doses. He said he was told to go ahead.
As the event was the first time that Harris County started vaccinating the public, Gokal said there was no county protocol he could have followed at that time: “They didn’t exist. This was a new scenario … You don’t has a precedence for that, “he said.
Courtesy of Hasan Gokal
But he said there was guidance from the Texas State Department of Health Services to always try to find qualified people at that level when there are surplus doses of vaccine at the end of a shift. If you can’t find anyone eligible, find someone willing and able to accept you. The agency’s message, said Gokal, was clear: “We don’t want any missed doses. Period.”
“At this point, I begin to examine my phone list, thinking about who can” fall into category 1 (b) (people over 65 or with a health condition that increases the risk of serious Covid-related illnesses), he said. Dr. Gokal.
He struggled to find 10 people who met the state’s vaccine requirements. Some were known; others, strangers. Among them were two women in their 70s. Two elderly women who are bedridden. Her children in their 70s who were suffering from medical problems were also shot. A mother with a son who uses a respirator, for whom catching the virus could be a “death sentence,” said Gokal.
After midnight, and with only 20 minutes to go until the vaccine expired, the last person scheduled to receive it canceled. Gokal said he had two options: throw the last dose away or give it to his wife, who suffers from pulmonary sarcoidosis, a lung disease that leaves her breathless and can be fatal. Given her condition, she was eligible, said the doctor.
Gokal said he never intended or planned to give the injection to any member of his family, unless it was through “appropriate channels” – but given the unusual circumstances, he gave the last dose to his wife.
He presented the paperwork to the 10 people he vaccinated the next morning at work and was transparent about what had happened the day before with his colleagues and supervisor, he said. A week later, he was fired.
Human resources said he should have returned the remaining doses, he said, even if it meant they would have been thrown away. Gokal, who immigrated from Pakistan when he was 10, said human resources also questioned the lack of “equality” among the list of people he vaccinated – suggesting that there were many Indian names in the group.
The Harris County Public Health Communication Department said the department was unable to comment on Gokal’s case.
Two weeks after he was fired, the doctor discovered that he had been charged with theft and breaking county protocols by public prosecutor Kim Ogg of Harris County.
“He abused his position to put his friends and family in front of people who had gone through the legal process to be there,” said Ogg. She said it was a week before “he told a County Public Health official Harris, who then reported him to the supervisors. “
A judge later dismissed the charges. The judge’s decision, which said that “the statement is riddled with sloppiness and errors,” noted that the state did not “sufficiently claim that the claimant had a greater right to own the vaccine than the defendant, who, upon admission by the claimant himself , is ‘the medical advisor for the COVID-19 response.’ “
The prosecutor still intends to take the case to a grand jury. Gokal’s lawyers expect that to happen in the next two weeks. If indicted, he faces a year in prison.
Gokal’s lawyer, Paul Doyle, said that when he requested copies of the written protocols and the waiting list referred to in the complaint, a prosecutor told him that there was neither, nor a written waiting list.
In an email, Dane Schiller, the district attorney’s communications director, said the office could not comment on the case, but forwarded CBS News to the indictment..
Gokal said he has tears in his eyes every time he recounts the moment he discovered that accusations were made against him.
The most difficult thing he had to deal with, he said, was to notice the consequences the situation had on his loved ones: his wife was struggling to sleep and her condition was getting worse. His children now had a hard time concentrating on their schoolwork: “It has been devastating,” he said.
“When I am in the ER, when there is a question mark about what is the right thing to do, human life always overcomes any political issue. No one ever questions that,” said Gokal, who has experience in emergency medicine. Now, he says he is dealing with the repercussions of not wasting a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic.
Gokal said he hoped his experience would not cause other doctors to lose their moral compass and be deterred from doing “the right thing” when it comes to making decisions.
“It is a pity that I was the first to arrive on the scene with this type of situation, and not several years later, when they realized that this should happen every time,” he said.
Earlier this month, the Texas Medical Association and the Harris County Medical Society issued a statement that supported Gokal’s actions.
“It is difficult to understand any justification for accusing any well-meaning doctor in this situation of a crime,” the statement said.
Regardless of the outcome of the legal process, Gokal fears for his career.
The charge “made Dr. Gokal look horrible all over the world,” said his lawyer, and has tainted a career he has spent two decades building.
“Everyone read the initial story and the initial reaction was, ‘These were the vaccines for my parents, grandparents and frontline employees. How dare he steal this?'” Said Doyle.
For now, Gokal spends his time volunteering at a charity health clinic.
“Since the only alternative would be to throw the vaccines away, I would not have done anything different,” said Gokal. “I wouldn’t be a good doctor if I said I regret doing this.”