JTA – When David first saw the ad in his Whatsapp group from the local Long Island community inviting people like him and his wife, both over 65, to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine, he was skeptical. The ad linked to an undefined Google form that asked him to answer some questions and submit insurance information.
“At that point I was suspicious. Is it an attempt to steal my identity? A scam? “He said in an email sharing his experience with the Jewish Telegraph Agency.
After doing some research, however, he found that the provider who created the form, ParCare Community Health Network, was well known and had hired the New York City health authority to administer coronavirus tests to the Orthodox Jewish community.
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Days after sending his information, David and his wife went to ParCare. On December 24, the couple, who is not a health professional, went to one of the units in the chain and received what they were told to be the coronavirus vaccine – in addition to a follow-up appointment to receive the second dose. in January.
Whether and how David will receive the second dose, needed to maximize the effectiveness of the Modern vaccine he received, is now unknown. That’s because, days after its vaccination, the state announced a criminal investigation into ParCare under allegations that the Brooklyn-based healthcare provider fraudulently obtained the vaccine and distributed it to members of the public in what appears to be the first investigation. about possible vaccine fraud in the United States.
Pfizer employees applaud after line workers finish packing the boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be shipped at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo plant in Portage, Michgan, December 13, 2020. (Morry Gash / AP)
“Anyone who has consciously participated in this scheme will be held responsible to the full extent of the law,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said in a statement on Saturday announcing the investigation.
A ParCare representative said on Sunday that the chain had “proactively” returned its vaccine supplies to cooperate with the state health department.
“We will be working with the state to ensure the delivery of the second dose to our patients,” said ParCare in a statement. “We will do everything in our power to ensure that the state understands that our patients are our priority and that everyone receives their second dose accordingly.”
State officials did not answer questions on Sunday about how they planned to deal with the second doses of people vaccinated by ParCare. Moderna’s clinical trial found that a single dose was 80 to 90% effective, compared with 94% for the two-dose vaccination.
David – who asked for a pseudonym for fear of repercussions for talking about his experience – said he was anxious that he would have to go without a second dose because of the ParCare investigation. He made an appeal on behalf of other patients who had received the first dose of the vaccine: “Please do not leave them in trouble and authorize the follow-up injection.”
Illustrative: Sandra Lindsay (L), a nurse, is inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, on December 14, 2020, in the Queens neighborhood of New York. (Mark Lennihan / Pool / AFP)
It is unclear how many people are in David’s position. BoroPark24, a Yiddish news service, reported on December 21 that ParCare had obtained 3,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine and would vaccinate 500 people that day.
A network representative told JTA that the vaccines were obtained properly and shared what he said was a packing slip and an email from the state health department showing that 2,300 doses of the vaccine had been delivered to ParCare in Monroe, New York, upstate this includes the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel.
But it is clear that those vaccinated by ParCare include prominent Orthodox leaders. Rabbi Hershel Schachter and Rabbi Mordechai Willig, both professors at Yeshiva University, were vaccinated at ParCare last week, and the network tweeted a video of their vaccinations. Neither Schachter, 79, nor Willig, 73, is a first-rate healthcare professional or resident or nursing home worker, the two categories currently eligible for vaccines.
On Sunday night, Schachter, who has been an open leader calling for compliance with the pandemic guidelines, said he was told his vaccination was honest.
Illustrative: a pharmacist labels syringes in a clean room where doses of the COVID-19 vaccines will be administered, December 9, 2020, at Mount Sinai Queens hospital in New York. (AP Photo / Mark Lennihan)
“If any of us had heard that this was inappropriate, that it was not legitimate, we would not have done it,” he said before giving an online Torah class.
ParCare announced that it would offer vaccines to people over 65 and with pre-existing health problems. But a Manhattan doctor said he had reason to believe that much younger people had been vaccinated.
Dr. Mark Horowitz, a family doctor with some patients from the Orthodox Jewish community, said he saw a 36-year-old patient last week who said she received a COVID-19 vaccine in Brooklyn the day before, despite not meeting state standards vaccination. Horowitz tweeted about the patient three days before the state announced its investigation of ParCare.
Horowitz said he found ParCare’s alleged misconduct “morally disgusting”, especially since he said he sees patients with COVID-19, but has not yet received the vaccine.
Illustrative. A syringe and bottle with the words ‘Vaccine COVID-19’ next to the Pfizer company logo, 23 November 2020. (JOEL SAGET / AFP)
“I have little, if any, sympathy for the people who skip the line, but I think the biggest blame goes to the operators of this facility,” he said.
This is what state investigators appear to be examining. The Centers for Disease Control vaccination program provider’s agreement, which New York requires private clinics to sign, tells participants to “administer the COVID-19 vaccine in compliance with all applicable state and territorial vaccination laws.” Violation of the contract entails suspension or termination of the program and federal criminal and civil penalties.
Gary Schlesinger, the prominent Hasidic businessman who owns the ParCare chain, shared a photo of his own vaccination on Twitter late last week. He deleted his post after the state announced its investigation.
David, the man who was vaccinated at ParCare, said he assumed ParCare was distributing the vaccine earlier because of COVID-19 rates in Orthodox communities. Both the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, and the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, called attention to the lapses in the communities in accordance with the rules created to contain the spread of the disease.
And the city has collaborated with ParCare while working to manage the pandemic. In October, NYC Test & Trace Corps, the city’s contact tracking unit, announced that it was expanding the provider’s COVID-19 testing capabilities and offering additional resources and supplies.
Dr. Aaron Glatt (Screengrab: YouTube)
But while Orthodox Brooklyn experienced some of the first major outbreaks of the pandemic in the United States, neighborhoods with the majority of Orthodox Jews are not on the list of areas of the city with the highest number of victims throughout the pandemic. That list, said de Blasio last week, will determine where vaccines will be sent first, once vaccines start for the general public.
Dr. Aaron Glatt, head of infectious diseases and epidemiologist at the hospital at Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island and an assistant rabbi at Young Israel of Woodmere, a major orthodox synagogue, declined to comment on the ParCare investigation. But he said that he, along with other medical professionals, had no choice but to follow state distribution schedules.
He also said that he personally responded to many surveys of the vaccine’s availability since the first federal approvals earlier this month.
“People are very anxious, very excited, very interested in getting this vaccine,” said Glatt. “I think the only concern at the moment is ‘how can I get the vaccine'”.