From "This is a wholly Elon Musk, shooting-for-the-heavens type of thing," to "company's abandonment of its testing work and the company's new privacy policy, which would have allowed it to sell patient data." to "Those best practices can mostly go out the window."

  • CoralMarks [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    "We're engineers, we're scientists, computer scientists, we're cybersecurity nerds. We think a little differently than people in health care do."
    "We took the entire model and just threw it out the window," Doroshin added. "We said to hell with all of that. We're going to completely build on a new model that is based on a factory."

    Ah yes, surely nothing can go wrong here, ey?

    By Jan. 9, Doroshin had a deal with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Mayor Jim Kenney's administration. The city never signed a formal contract with Philly Fighting Covid or gave the organization any money, but it did provide its unofficial sanction and publicity. Most importantly, the city turned over part of its vaccine allotment to the group and helped it find recipients by sharing lists of residents who were newly eligible for the vaccine, based on the city's own prioritization scheme.

    This is pretty bonkers to me, yeah let's just give these guys vaccines, and let's see how it goes. YOLO

    As the startup continued to hold clinics, WHYY began investigating the organization and its founder.
    The reporters uncovered other serious problems, and it soon became clear that the group's logistical strengths and self-promotional flair, which had once made the startup seem so compelling, weren't working.
    The investigation revealed that in December, just before Philly Fighting Covid began its vaccination work, it reorganized and became a for-profit company called Vax Populi.

    "Stop using best practices," Doroshin said during a recent interview with HealthDay. "I think the old best practices in health care, in terms of intramuscular injections, were written for a hospital visit that would take 30 minutes, that you needed to do a bill for as a provider visit. Those best practices can mostly go out the window."

    "There was literally 85-year-olds, 95-year-old people standing there, with printed appointment confirmations saying, 'I don't understand why I can't get vaccinated,' " Horn recalled.
    On Jan. 23, volunteer nurse Katrina Lipinsky was helping at one of Philly Fighting Covid's vaccination events. She said that about half an hour before the event's scheduled end, staffers started telling volunteers and other workers to call anyone they knew to come in for a shot because there were going to be extras.
    Then she saw Doroshin grab a handful of vaccines and stuff them in his bag, along with the corresponding CDC vaccination record cards.
    "The idea of somebody who's not a licensed health care professional vaccinating their own friend, with or without observation period, that certainly was not the right thing to do," Lipinsky told WHYY.
    Doroshin initially denied Lipinsky's account but eventually admitted he took doses home during a Jan. 28 interview on NBC's Today show. The following day at a press conference, he said he had vaccinated his girlfriend, but no one else. He did not explain how Philly Fighting Covid ended up with extra doses after it turned away people, including seniors, who were in line waiting for the vaccine that same day.

    What a wild story, jesus christ.

    Doroshin called the city's decision to dissolve the partnership "dirty power politics" and alleged it was part of a political conspiracy. He said that if given the chance, he wouldn't have done anything differently.

    What a disgusting little clown. Hope he catches some strain that whatever he himself got vaccinated with doesn't protect against.