A Houston area health doctor is accused by prosecutors of stealing nine doses of coronavirus vaccine from a damaged vial and administer it to family and friends. But Hasan Gokal insists he did nothing wrong and was just trying to make sure the vaccine was not lost, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Harris County Public Health
Authorities claim that Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a vial of the Modern coronavirus vaccine while working at a vaccination site in a suburban Houston park on December 29.
Gokal told a health department official earlier this month that “he had taken a leaked vial of Moderna vaccine … at the end of the operations and that he took the vial off-site and vaccinated his friends and family”, de according to a likely cause complaint.
Prosecutors determined that Gokal, 48, gave the vaccine to nine individuals, including his wife, according to the complaint.
“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 responsible. By the law.”
Paul Doyle, Gokal’s lawyer, called his client “a dedicated public servant who ensured that the doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that would otherwise have expired would go into the arms of people who met the criteria for receiving it.
“Harris County would have preferred Dr. Gokal to let the vaccines go to waste and is trying to denigrate this man’s reputation in the process of supporting this policy. We look forward to our day in court to correct this mistake,” said Doyle in a statement.
Gokal was fired after an internal investigation by the health department.
Authorities said Gokal disregarded rules related to vaccine bottles drilled with viable doses that guide employees to ensure that such doses are brought back to the main office so that they can be administered to at-risk frontline workers, including health officials and police, and vulnerable populations.
Incorrect handling of the vaccine can result in the loss of government resources to the municipality, according to the health department.
Gokal is facing a charge of misdemeanor theft by a public official. If convicted, he faces up to a year in prison and a $ 4,000 fine.
In Wisconsin, a pharmacist was arrested in December after being accused of spoiling 57 vials of the Modern vaccine because he supposedly believed that the vaccine would change the DNA of the recipients.