[ad_1]
Texas doctor Hasan Gokal, who was fired and accused of stealing doses of the coronavirus vaccine, defended his decision, saying he was not going to let the vaccine doses expire and be wasted.
“It’s a county of 5 million people and we got the first 3,000,000 doses. There was no place to throw it away. Never,” Gokal, former doctor with The Harris County Department of Public Health in Texas and the County Medical Director of Vaccine Deployment, said in a report. interview with CBS News.
“When you have something so precious, which saves lives, it would hurt you to throw it away,” he added.
The incident happened on December 29 and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg charged him shortly after with stealing 10 doses from a vaccination site. The charge could result in a fine of $ 4,000 and one year in prison.
Gokal told CBS News there were 10 doses left at a vaccination site at the end of the night and he had to administer them within six hours or else they would expire.
Gokal wanted to use the last 10 doses and checked with all employees and police present at the vaccination event, but they already had the vaccine or refused it. He says he checked with a Harris County public health official to see if he could find 10 people to administer it to and the official agreed.
“At that point, I start going through my phone list, thinking about who might ‘qualify for the vaccine,’ Gokal told CBS News.
It found nine people who were elderly or had health problems that put them at a higher risk of death from the virus. In the last few minutes before the vaccine expired, he vaccinated his wife because he could not find anyone else and there was only one dose left.
His wife suffers from pulmonary sarcoidosis, a lung disease which he says qualified her for the vaccine.
“He abused his position to put his friends and family online in front of people who had gone through the legal process to be there,” Ogg said in a statement. “What he did was illegal and he will be held accountable under the law.”
A judge has dismissed the charges, but Ogg is still taking the case to a grand jury.
[ad_2]
Source link