What should be done with expired doses of coronavirus vaccines has been hotly debated since inoculations began in December. For a Texas doctor, the decision to administer doses of vaccines that were about to expire resulted in job losses and criminal prosecution, he told the New York Times in a story released on Thursday.
Dr. Hasan Gokal described why he administered the vaccine, saying he had an ethical duty to ensure that all doses of the coronavirus vaccine were not wasted. But in doing so, it cost him his job.
Last week, the Texas Medical Association released a letter that supported Gokal’s actions.
“Almost all doctors’ offices that received the COVID-19 vaccine to administer are sometimes struggling at the end of the day to immunize someone – whether they meet the priority criteria or not – to avoid wasting the vaccine in a perforated bottle,” said organization said in a statement. “It is difficult to understand any justification for accusing any well-meaning doctor in this situation of a crime.”
The Texas Medical Association added, “They should be applauded, not penalized for that.”
Gokal told the New York Times that at the end of the coronavirus vaccine distribution, they opened an entire vial of the vaccine for the last patient. Once the vial has been punctured, the vaccine should be administered within six hours. The bottle contained 11 doses, but they only needed one to complete the distribution of the vaccine.
Gokal told the New York Times that he first offered the vaccine to officials who administered it, but those in attendance refused or had already been vaccinated. He then took charge of vaccinating those he knew who are considered most at risk. The last person he vaccinated was his wife, who has pulmonary sarcoidosis.
Gokal was accused of stealing doses of the vaccine, but later the charges were dropped.
A prosecutor in Harris County, Texas, accused Gokal of “mishandling” the vaccine.
“He abused his position to put his friends and family in front of people who had gone through the legal process to be there,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement last month. “What he did was illegal and he will be held accountable to the law.”
Pressing between making sure vaccines go to the right people and making sure doses don’t go to waste has been a problem across the country. Health professionals in Oregon late last month administered coronavirus vaccines on a highway when they got stuck in a traffic jam, which would have caused the doses they carried to expire. In Seattle, a freezer designed to store coronavirus vaccines was launched, prompting a hospital to launch a call on social media for those who wanted and could be vaccinated in the middle of the night.
To read the full story of the New York Times, click on here.