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San Francisco and San Mateo counties have stopped providing the COVID-19 vaccine to a health care provider who allegedly inoculated ineligible people.
On Monday, the San Francisco Department of Public Health ordered supplier One Medical to return about 1,620 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
In San Francisco, One Medical was supposed to immunize healthcare workers as defined in Phase 1A of the state’s immunization program, including home caregivers, dentists and physicians not affiliated with a major healthcare provider. health.
But One Medical provided a report on Feb. 17 showing it gave “a number of doses” to people whose health worker status could not be verified, the department said in a statement.
San Mateo public health officials said in a statement that “the issues with One Medical were disappointing but not representative of the county’s robust and successful vaccination efforts.”
One Medical is based in San Francisco and has locations across the United States, including several in Los Angeles. He charges patients an annual fee of $ 199 and promotes himself as a healthcare provider who practices “medicine as it should be practiced, focusing on improving the patient experience and challenging the patient. health care status quo ”and boasts among its benefits“ longer, no rushed appointments.
Dr Andrew Diamond, medical director of One Medical, said the company did not knowingly vaccinate anyone who did not qualify.
“We have absolutely not, under any circumstances, knowingly vaccinated anyone who does not meet the criteria of the health departments we work with,” Diamond said Thursday.
He added, “That doesn’t mean bad actors can’t afford to do bad things.”
Two One Medical employees were fired for “improper use of a vaccine,” Diamond said, declining to provide details.
According to a statement from One Medical, 96% of people vaccinated by the company had documentation proving their eligibility, while 4% were vaccinated to avoid wasting doses.
The statement said the company regularly turns down people who do not have the necessary documents.
In San Mateo County, education officials reported that One Medical vaccinated people before they were eligible for the system at multiple state and county levels.
Public health officials decided to sever ties with One Medical after an investigation found the company had vaccinated 70 ineligible people.
Diamond called the situation “one of the most unfortunate things that has happened in our experience with the allocation or administration of vaccines.”
He said some teachers had been informed by a school principal that they were eligible and received the photo after showing an email from the principal.
Diamond said the company apologized to county officials for the error. The teachers “came to us in good faith and we did the vaccination in good faith,” he said.
He said he believed San Francisco’s decision to recall the doses was not punitive but was to redistribute the vaccine to areas where One Medical does not have an office.
A doctor ended up with enough vaccine to give second doses to each recipient, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
County officials have requested that unused doses be returned due to issues with recipients who were not verified health workers, the department said in a statement.
Unused doses “will be redistributed to other providers who can direct doses to priority populations based on health equity considerations,” the statement said.
In Los Angeles County, public health officials received a complaint in late January that One Medical had vaccinated someone who was not a healthcare worker.
Officials have warned the company that it will not receive more vaccines if it fails to meet county guidelines, the county’s public health department said in a statement.
The county has not received any additional complaints about One Medical, the statement said.
In Santa Clara County, doses of the vaccine were provided to about 300 One Medical healthcare workers, and there was no intention to allocate more, officials said in a statement.
Times editor Kevin Rector contributed to this report.
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