Philly COVID Vaccination Group CEO Took Home Doses in Plastic Bag, Nurse Alleges
SHADY
Philadelphia has cut ties with the operator of its biggest coronavirus vaccination site after the business switched to a for-profit model without informing regulators and altered the language of its privacy policy to allow it to sell personal information, though the organization claimed it would not do so. Philly Fighting COVID has, so far, vaccinated roughly 7,000 people on a volunteer basis for the city with no official contract or payment. Katrina Lipinsky, a nurse practitioner, told The Philadelphia Inquirer the group failed to ask her for her medical license when she arrived Jan. 16 to administer vaccines. She said she saw the CEO piling doses of the vaccine into a plastic bag and that he advised staff they could text friends and family to come receive excess doses. Philly Fighting COVID CEO Andrei Doroshin said in a statement posted to Instagram, “We just want to help people… I have a team that is versed in doing the best clinic in the world. And why can’t we deploy them?” City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told the Inquirer, “We didn’t feel at that point, this was truly a trustworthy organization… In retrospect, I wish we hadn’t worked with Philly Fighting COVID.” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said those concerned about the group should contact his office.