Texan doctor Hasan Gokal, who was fired and accused of stealing doses of the coronavirus vaccine, defended his decision, saying he would not let the doses of the vaccine expire and go to waste.
“This is a county of 5 million people and we had the first 3,000 doses. There was no space to throw anything away. Never,” Gokal, formerly a doctor with The Harris County Department of Public Health of Texas and medical director for the vaccine launch in the county, said in a interview with CBS News.
“When you have something so precious, it saves lives, it would hurt to throw it away,” he added.
The incident happened on December 29 and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg accused him shortly after stealing 10 doses at a vaccination site. The charge could result in a $ 4,000 fine and a year in prison.
Gokal told CBS News that 10 doses were missing at a vaccination site by the end of the night and that he needed to administer them in six hours or else they would expire.
Gokal wanted to use the last 10 doses and checked with all officials and police that they were at the vaccination event, but they already had the vaccine or refused it. He said he checked with a Harris County public health officer to see if he could find 10 people to administer and the officer agreed.
“At this point, I start to go through my phone book, thinking about who can” qualify for the vaccine, Gokal told CBS News.
He found nine people who were elderly or had health problems that put them at greater risk of dying from the virus. In the last few minutes before the vaccine expired, he vaccinated his wife, as he found no one else and only missed one dose.
His wife has pulmonary sarcoidosis, a lung disease that he believed to qualify for the vaccine.
“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 in a statement. “What he did was illegal and he will be held accountable to the law.”
A judge dismissed the charges, but Ogg is still taking the case to a grand jury.