The lawyer for a Harris County public health doctor fired and charged with theft for allegedly stealing a vial of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine in December said the doses would have gone to waste.
Paul Doyle, a lawyer for Dr. Hasan Gokal, said the county is trying to deflect the blame for a random launch of its vaccine program for its client.
“If these doctors are prosecuted for trying to use leftover vaccines, there will be more and more waste than is already there,” said Doyle. “They would rather put (doses) in a trash can than face this public scrutiny.”
Gokal was on Thursday charged with civil contravention of theft by a public official. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said he “abused his position to put his friends and family on the front lines of people who had gone through the legal process.”
Doyle, who declined to make Gokal available for comment, offered a different version of the events: Gokal was assigned to a vaccine distribution site on December 29 in Humble, where the Harris County health department offered the Modern vaccine to patients elderly and at risk.
Each vial of this vaccine contains about 10 doses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. Once the bottle is punctured, doses should be administered within six hours. Doyle said the doctors were preparing to close the day at around 6:30 pm, when another eligible patient arrived.
After vaccinating the man, Gokal had nine doses left, but no additional patients, his lawyer said. Gokal offered doses to health professionals and police on the spot, but found no buyer. He then asked a Health Department supervisor for help in finding eligible patients, but that effort was also unsuccessful.
With no access to any patient list, Doyle said Gokal used contacts on his cell phone to find eligible patients, including a 93-year-old woman who was at home and an 86-year-old woman with dementia. After 11 pm, with no other patients available and the vaccine about to expire, Gokal gave the final dose to his wife, who has a serious lung problem.
“He had about 15 to 30 minutes left or this dose is rubbish,” said Doyle.
Gokal recorded the patients who received the doses in a state database the next day, said Doyle. The doctor, who was hired by the health department last April, was fired on January 8 after admitting to supervisors that he took doses off-site.
Doyle said Gokal’s chiefs said the doctor should have ruled out the remaining doses.
A senior Harris County official said Gokal was right to look for other eligible vaccine containers at the site, but he should have returned the unused doses to his supervisor instead of administering them elsewhere.
The official said Harris County Public Health administered about 20,000 doses and wasted 25, 20 of which were lost when two bottles broke. The department did not provide a written statement of its vaccine distribution protocols.
According to billing documents, Harris County Public Health officials feared the department would lose funds if it mismanaged doses and also had procedures in place to ensure that the bottles were not wasted.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg did not comment on Gokal’s version of the events on Friday.
“He admitted that he stole the vaccine, which is as valuable as gold to many people in our society, and gave it to his own friends and family,” said Ogg spokesman Dane Schiller. “He now faces liability under the law.”
Gokal, who has been practicing medicine in the United States for 21 years, surrendered to the authorities on Wednesday morning, Doyle said. He faces up to a year in prison and a $ 4,000 fine.