- A Texas doctor was fired and accused of stealing a bottle of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- The prosecutor said the bottle contained nine doses of the vaccine.
- Gokal’s lawyer told CNN that the villain was about to expire and would have gone to waste.
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A Texas doctor faces charges that he stole nine doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from his workplace.
Dr. Hasan Gokal stole the single bottle on December 29 while working at the county vaccination site in Humble, Texas, according to the Harris County prosecutor’s office.
Hasan was fired and charged with criminal charges after telling a fellow public health official that he reported the fact to his supervisors, according to the prosecution.
“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 prosecutor Kim Ogg in a statement. “What he did was illegal and he will be held accountable to the law.”
The local health department said, through the prosecutor’s office, that incorrect handling of the vaccine could result in the loss of government resources for the county.
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“Gokal disregarded county protocols in place to ensure that the vaccine was not wasted, but administered to vulnerable populations and frontline workers on the waiting list,” said the office statement.
Gokal’s lawyer, Paul Doyle, told CNN that his client was only taking doses that were about to expire and that they would have been rendered useless by mistake.
Doyle told CNN that his client was “a dedicated public servant who ensured that 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 waste vaccines and is trying to undermine this man’s reputation in the process of supporting this policy,” continued Doyle’s statement.
If convicted of the alleged theft, a misdemeanor, Gokal faces up to a year in prison and a $ 4,000 fine.