When Philadelphia began receiving its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines, it sought to partner with someone who could get a mass vaccination site up and running quickly.
City officials may have looked across the horizon at world-renowned healthcare providers at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University or Jefferson Health.
Instead, they chose a 22-year-old psychology student with a few wobbly startups on his resume. And last week, amid concerns over its qualifications and the lucrative status of Philly Fighting Covid, the city closed its operations at the center’s convention center.
“Where were all the people with credentials? Why did a child have to come in and help the city? ”Said the student, Andrei Doroshin, in an interview with the Associated Press.
“I am a damned graduate student. But do you know what? We did the job. We vaccinated 7,000 people, ”said the student at Drexel University. “It was us doing our part in this crazy time.”
City officials said they gave him the task because he and his friends had organized one of the community groups that set up Covid-19 test sites across the city last year. But they closed the vaccination operation as soon as they learned that Doroshin had altered his privacy notice to potentially sell patient data, a development he calls a flaw that he quickly fixed.
It is unclear when the city will find a new website operator.
“They were doing a reasonably good job of giving the vaccines. They apparently decided that they would monetize some of that information, which was wrong, and we ended our relationship with them, ”said Jim Kenney, the mayor, at a news conference on Tuesday, citing the work of local media in the concerns . “And this is the end of them.”
Doroshin also admitted that he took home four doses of the Pfizer vaccine and administered it to friends, although he is neither a nurse nor a licensed health professional. He said he only did this after exhausting other options. There were 100 extra doses set to expire that night, and the site was able to gather only 96 eligible recipients, he said.
“They had to go for an arm or be thrown out,” said Doroshin, who said he had given intramuscular injections before. “I felt good ethically … There is nothing I have done that is illegal.”
State and local prosecutors are now pondering the issue.
Many believe the situation speaks to a broader point about the health care system in Philadelphia and across the country.
Public health budgets were hit hard before the pandemic, leaving local and state governments ill-equipped to implement a mass vaccination program. This left them fighting for Covid-19 partners.
“I think there is a place in our health care system for our innovative partners,” said Julia Lynch, a health policy expert who teaches at Penn. “But maybe this is not the time to experiment with disruptors? Perhaps this is the time to turn to an infrastructure for the provision of health services that operates like a well-oiled machine? “
She is also concerned that city data shows that only 12% of the city’s vaccines went to black residents, who represent 42% of the city’s population. She, like others, hoped the job would go to a more established group, like the Black Doctors Consortium, which has been testing and vaccinating people in low-income areas of the city for the past year.
Lucinda Ayers, 74, took the chance to schedule an interview for February 12 through Doroshin’s website at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and wonders if the city shouldn’t have helped him comply with the law.
“They were vaccinating people. I’m on the fence about it, ”said Ayers, who was not lucky to find another appointment, despite spending hours online. “There is so much lack of clarity in the information that comes out.”
Doroshin, while doing his graduate studies, changed direction from the Covid-19 test operation to work with the vaccine when he learned of the city’s need. He said he lent $ 250,000 from a family friend for the upfront costs, and the city – through nothing more than a verbal agreement – gave him a reduction in vaccine supplies, with the top priority being healthcare professionals. .
He said he agreed to pay $ 1 million to rent the convention center for six months and expects to charge the city $ 500,000 a month once it is fully up and running. He hired about 30 people, although at least some of the doctors, nurses and nursing students who gave the injections were volunteers, he said.
“I was going to get paid,” he said. “In a perfect world, I wanted to vaccinate Philly in six months and then apply for my doctorate.”
Dr. Thomas Farley, city health commissioner, said this week that the group had a good test history, so “we decided to give them the opportunity to run mass clinics, and the first mass clinic went very well.”
For now, the city has pledged to ensure that the people who took the first vaccines there can receive their booster vaccines.
“It certainly shows why we need a real public health system,” said Councilwoman Helen Gym, who noted that two private hospitals in the city have closed since 2019, while the city remains one of the few major cities in the U.S. without a public hospital. .
She called the implementation of the aborted vaccine “a profound and blatant failure”.