Philadelphia health officials are reorganizing COVID-19 vaccination plans after the city broke ties with a group of young volunteers in charge of mass vaccination efforts that resulted in canceled consultations and claims to sell patient information.
“Licensed medical service providers who volunteer for a group called Philly Fighting COVID provided vaccines at several mass vaccination clinics COVID-19 under the direction of a medical director,” a health department spokesman said in a statement sent by email to Fox News. “Earlier this week, the Department of Health broke ties with this group due to the change in status from non-profit to for-profit, changing its privacy policy to allow them to sell the data collected on its pre-registration website and canceling scheduled test clinics that they were under contract to do. “
The health department called the changes “extremely worrying” and has since stopped providing vaccines for Philly Fighting Covid. Philadelphia city council members are pressuring city officials for answers.
“The Department of Health is currently developing plans to transfer future vaccine allocations to other providers and is programming new clinics to ensure that people who have been vaccinated at the PFC clinics at the Convention Center can receive their second dose,” continues the statement sent. by email. “The Health Department will contact each of these people to make appointments”.
Those interested in vaccines are encouraged to apply online.
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Philly Fighting COVID – founded by 22-year-old graduate student Andrei Doroshin of 22-year-old Drexel University – initially aimed to help the city by making face shields for healthcare professionals with a 3-D printer. The group then started to do tests and soon after, vaccines.
The group was tasked with running Philadelphia’s first mass community vaccine clinic, which opened on January 8, according to a statement from city health officials.
Many seniors were reportedly refused nominations after a confusion in the application process, and other allegations say Doroshin pocketed the leftover vaccines, although he calls the claims “unfounded” by Philadelphia Magazine. The vehicle noted that no one on the group’s “executive team” had a medical degree, although several nurses and a doctor were on the group’s “operations team”.
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Doroshin recently issued a statement posted on the Philly Fighting COVID website, apologizing for causing any confusion or damage.
“We understand that there have been legitimate inquiries about our privacy policies. There was a language in our privacy policy that was problematic and, as soon as we became aware of it, we removed it. I apologize for the error in our privacy policy. We never sold and would never sell, share or disseminate any data we collect, as it would be a violation of HIPAA rules, “says the statement.
“We are aware that some were surprised when we switched tests to vaccines and sincerely apologize for any communication failure. Our intention was never to cause confusion or harm,” the statement said.
Doroshin said the test pivot for vaccine administration called for a shift from nonprofit to for profit.
“Vaccinating large groups of people requires resources, manpower and, ultimately, financial aid. That’s why we also changed the direction for a for-profit company – so that we could expand our operations team and accelerate distribution of the vaccine. We never hid our intentions with the city and they were making the change for good reason. “
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Philadelphia Magazine reported that a removed list of employees comprised of all leadership positions held by white volunteers.
Dr. Ala Stanford, founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, criticized the initial choice of the health department when choosing the group to lead vaccination efforts, especially as the reach of minorities remains a key issue in distribution efforts. .
“If anyone was prepared and ready to do this, it was us,” Stanford told Philadelphia Magazine.