A Texas doctor was fired and charged with criminal charges after being accused of stealing a bottle of the COVID-19 vaccine to give vaccines to friends and relatives.
Authorities claim that Dr. Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a bottle containing nine doses of Moderna vaccine while working at a vaccination post at Lyndsay Lyons Park in Humble on December 29.
The theft was discovered after Gokal boasted about it to a co-worker the following week, who reported it to supervisors.
Prosecutors later determined that Gokal, 48, used the vial to give the vaccine to nine different people, including his wife.
“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 Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
“What he did was illegal and he will be held accountable to the law.”
Authorities claim that Dr. Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a bottle containing nine doses of the Modern vaccine
The theft allegedly occurred while he was working at a vaccination post at Lyndsay Lyons Park (above) in Humble on December 29
Ogg said that Gokal ignored protocols designed to ensure that the vaccine is given to frontline workers and people most at risk of complications from COVID-19 instead of being wasted, adding that incorrect handling of the vaccine can lead to cutting the vaccine. county government funding.
Gokal’s lawyer, Paul Doyle, said in a written statement that his client is a ‘dedicated public servant’ who is looking forward to his day in court.
He added that his client did nothing wrong, insisting that the bottle was already damaged, but Gokal did not want it to be wasted.
‘[Gokal] ensured that the dosages of the COVID-19 vaccine that would otherwise have expired went into the arms of people who met the criteria for receiving it, ‘said Doyle.
‘Harris County would have preferred Dr. Gokal to waste vaccines and is trying to undermine this man’s reputation in the process of supporting this policy.’
Gokal was fired after an internal investigation by the health department.
He was charged with civil misdemeanor theft by a government official and faces up to a year in prison and a $ 4,000 fine if convicted.
Prosecutors later determined that Gokal, 48, had used the vial to give the vaccine to nine different people, one of whom was his wife
Gokal was one of the faces of Harris County Public Health during the pandemic, having appeared regularly in city hall videos and panels.
Records indicate that he has been practicing medicine for 21 years and is in good standing on the Texas Medical Board, with no disciplinary history.
Woods Nash, assistant professor of bioethics and medical humanities at the University of Houston College of Medicine, told ABC13: ‘If the charge against Dr. Gokal is true, he has committed a significant breach of public confidence in the medical profession.
“We trust doctors and other healthcare professionals to put the interests of their patients and the public above their own goals and desires.
“This expectation of altruism is not changed by the pandemic. At the very least, the pandemic only increases the urgency to put aside self-interests that conflict with the public good, ‘he continued.
Gokal was not arrested and a hearing was not scheduled. Your medical license is still active.
The vaccine’s launch in the Houston region and other parts of Texas has been slower than expected, according to KHOU11.
Only 10 percent of Texans eligible for the first dose received them. In the Houston region, only Galveston and Fort Bend counties vaccinated above average, while Harris County counted 10 percent.
Gokal was one of the faces of Harris County Public Health during the pandemic, having appeared regularly in city hall videos and panels
Steven Brandenburg, 46, was arrested on December 31 and accused on Tuesday of trying to spoil more than 500 doses of the Modern COVID vaccine
In Wisconsin, a pharmacist was arrested in December after being accused of damaging 57 vials of the Modern vaccine for allegedly believing that the vaccine would cause mutations in the DNA of the recipients.
Steven Bandenburg, 46, was charged this week with misdemeanor for attempting criminal property damage.
Prosecutors said Bradenburg is an admitted conspiracy theorist who believed the vaccine would change the recipients’ DNA. Medical experts say there is no truth to claims that the COVID-19 vaccines genetically modify humans.
Brandenburg told a detective that he removed the vials from the refrigerator at the medical center for three hours on December 24 and then replaced them.
Then, the next day, at Christmas, he took the bottles out of the refrigerator again and left them out for nine hours, believing that it would render the doses ineffective if not refrigerated for 12 hours. But he said a pharmacy technician found the bottles and put them back in the refrigerator.
The Modern vaccine should be stored between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit.
If convicted, Brandenburg faces a $ 10,000 fine and up to nine months in prison. He is due to return to court on March 18.