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What there is to know
- The disclosure that the city does not need contracts for vaccine administrators comes a day after the relationship with a company called Philly Fighting COVID ended.
- The city dropped out of Philly Fighting COVID over privacy and data concerns after learning the organization was for-profit.
- The city’s health secretary said he would look for better ways to “check” organizations before partnering with them.
An organization called Philly Fighting COVID, led by a 22-year-old Drexel University researcher, received 6,950 doses of the city of Philadelphia’s coronavirus vaccine before the city abruptly ended the relationship on Monday.
The termination of the partnership came after the city was alerted by media that Philly Fighting COVID had turned into a for-profit business. There were concerns that the company, founded by Andrei Doroshin, could sell data provided by people seeking the vaccine.
On Tuesday, amid questions about the verification process the Philadelphia Department of Public Health uses to assess vaccine partners, city officials admitted there was no contract with the organizations administering the vaccine. on behalf of the city.
“There is no contract with a supplier who distributes vaccines,” said public health spokesman James Garrow.
He said the city only required organizations to fill out a form.
“Every organization that distributes vaccines in Philadelphia has registered with the Department of Health with a form that seeks to ensure that they can meet the minimum requirements for vaccine distribution,” Garrow said. “There is no tax contract between the City and any COVID vaccine supplier because the City did not receive any money from the federal government to distribute the vaccine.”
Health Secretary Dr Thomas Farley said the Department of Public Health “will see what kinds of additional things we can do to check any organization that works with us.”
“In retrospect, this organization was not good for us to have a partnership with this organization,” Farley said.
A spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney declined to comment further.
Garrow did not immediately respond to a request for a list of organizations that have received doses of COVID-19 from the city, or how many doses were given to each.
Of the 6,950 doses administered to Philly Fighting COVID, city health officials have records for 6,757 administered. There are 193 who remain missing.
Doroshin did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement he posted on Twitter, Doroshin said, “We understand that there have been legitimate requests about our privacy policies.”
“I apologize for the error in our privacy policy,” the statement read. “We never have and will never sell, share or disseminate the data we have collected because it would violate HIPAA rules.”
“We’re here for Philly,” he added.
More than 132,000 doses were received by the city on Tuesday. Of these, 90,600 were administered as first doses and 24,000 as second doses.
The city expects to receive 20,000 doses each week until the end of February.
Farley has promised that anyone who receives their first dose through Philly Fighting COVID will always receive their second dose on time.
He also said that Philly Fighting COVID has told the city it has no plans to sell the data.
“We are working with our legal department to see if there is a way to ensure that this does not happen, and now [Philly Fighting COVID is] saying there has been no disclosure of this information, ”Farley said.
On Monday evening, the company added a privacy policy and terms of service to its website. He also deleted a page listing staff, including Doroshin. The page, however, is still visible in a cached version of the site.
The end of the city’s partnership with Philly Fighting COVID was first reported by WHYY.
“We are a group of nerds, engineers and scientists who have come together to fight this pandemic,” according to a line at the top of the team’s page.
Despite Farley’s assurances and a bold statement on the website that reads: “* THE COMPANY WILL NOT SELL DATA TO ANY PARTY, “the language of the privacy policy is less clear.
“We may share or transfer your personal information as part of or during negotiations of any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or part of our business to another company,” the policy states in a section titled “For business transfers.”
Two law enforcement officials, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and District Attorney Larry Krasner, both said on Twitter that anyone who believes they know of vaccine misuse should contact their offices.
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