Something’s not quite right at the City’s Public Health Department

The story I’m writing about today is an ongoing story and all the details have not been made public yet. However this much I do know. A young man who is 22 years old and a graduate student at Drexel University, won a contract from the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health, to provide COVID-19 testing and then later, COVID-19 vaccines. The organization I’m referring to that suddenly has the spotlight on them, is Philly Fighting COVID. The founder and CEO is Andrei Doroshin.
I don’t have anything against a startup organization that’s formed to do good work in a crisis situation and the pandemic is most definitely a crisis. That’s why I applaud, for example, the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium started by Dr. Ala Stanford, However, I would think, if you are offering services that have a medical over-lay, almost everyone involved with your organization should have a medical background. Having some college interns, who are pre-med or already in medical school is fine. But most definitely everyone administering tests and administering vaccine shots should have medical backgrounds. Period.
On January 29, 2021, Adrei Doroshin released a statement about what is now a failed COVID-19 response effort, funded via the city’s Health Department. Here’s a portion of what Doroshin said in his statement. “Today is Friday and Philly Fighting COVID should be vaccinating thousands of people. Instead, I’m here forced to defend us against another example of Philly’s dirty power politics. The red herring that was thrown at us, the notion that we would sell data, that would be a Federal offense. The accusation is completely false. But this false accusation served its purpose. Without a shred of evidence, the head of the health department suddenly and without cause, cut our relationship, stopping many thousands of vaccinations dead in their tracks. At the first smell of gunpowder Dr. Farley ran for cover, so where is he now?”
Philly Fighting COVID supposedly started out as a group of college friends who just wanted to do something positive to help during the pandemic. They all had strong computer backgrounds and they were working in 3-D, so they started making face shields. They went from making face shields to creating a non-profit, to opening a testing site for COVID-19, in a community where there was no testing site yet. Ultimately, they came up with a very fancy, creative, state of the art computer system, for putting together reporting on testing for COVID, first and keeping data. Then on vaccinations. And decision makers at the Health Department went for it.
But still, the question remains, why would the Health Department give a big contract with such heavy responsibility, to a young start up group? Some say it’s because they had “white privilege.” It didn’t matter that they didn’t have medical backgrounds. They were white. I have to say what some in the Black community are saying. Let me be real.
Since the Health Department has cut ties with Philly Fighting COVID, Philadelphia City Council has unveiled legislation to address deficiencies in how the city’s Health Department allowed an unproven, unqualified group of non-public health professionals to gain access to thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccine for distribution to city residents. The legislation, scheduled for introduction Thursday in City Council, addresses several important issues arising in how the Health Department issues contracts or enters agreements with non-city providers to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
Council President Darrel L. Clarke and Councilmember Cindy Bass, who chairs Council’s Public Health and Human Services Committee, unveiled the legislation during a virtual news conference Monday, February 1, 2021. In addition to the legislation, Council will hold a public hearing Friday, February 5th in Council’s Public Health & Human Services Committee, Chaired by Councilwoman Bass. The hearing’s purpose is to examine how the Health Department came to distribute nearly 7,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Philly Fighting COVID. The city terminated its undocumented vaccine agreement with the organization last week, amid news stories concerning the groups questionable practices and conduct. “Council intends to get to the bottom of this matter in our hearing and to understand how the city came to award thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccine to a group that seems unqualified and inexperienced,” said Councilmember Bass.
Meanwhile, another local organization, with a similar name wants it known, they are not associated with Philly Fighting COVID in any away.
Philadelphia FIGHT issued the following statement:“We at Philadelphia FIGHT have been distressed by the bungled COVID Vaccine response carried out until a few days ago by a new organization called Philly Fighting COVID (PFC).
“As you are probably aware, PFC, with no medical leadership, an inexperienced graduate student as their CEO, and no history whatsoever of the delivery of medical services, was chosen by the City to run its first vaccination mass distribution center through a process that has still not been made public. Philadelphia FIGHT Community Health Centers is not connected to and was not involved with PFC’s project, in which unlicensed volunteers were apparently asked to vaccinate the most vulnerable Philadelphians, in an environment of ever shifting leadership, and where the founder of PFC has been reliably quoted as saying that he intended to become wealthy as a result of franchising his dangerously flawed approach.
“The Health Department’s official who okayed the contract had resigned. Following the City’s ending its relationship with PFC, confusion arose as to how thousands of people eligible for a second dose of vaccine would get it, and in the first day post the split, which vaccine would be used. We want to clearly state Philadelphia FIGHT Community Health Centers is not PFC, and has nothing to do with PFC.
“FIGHT was founded over 30 years ago to address issues related to HIV/AIDS. Seven years ago, we expanded our services to become a Federally Qualified Health Center serving over 6000 patients. Most of our patients are low income, and the majority are people of color. Our clinical providers offer and have always offered state of the art HIV and Hepatitis care, in a primary care setting that also emphasizes dignity, choice and access to the best treatments available. We are funded and heavily regulated by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department of Health, and the City. We conform to all relevant requirements and regulations. Unlike what has been reported about PFC, we do not make it up as we go along.”
More on this story as things develop. Stay tuned.