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A Harris County judge on Monday dismissed a theft charge against a doctor accused of stealing nine doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine that he said would otherwise be wasted.
County Court Judge Franklin Bynum criticized Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg for attempting to prosecute Dr Hasan Gokal and said the sole charge of theft by an official was devoid of probable cause.
“In the number of words commonly used to describe an allegation of retail shoplifting, the state is attempting, for the first time, to criminalize the documented administration by a physician of doses of vaccine during a public health emergency Bynum wrote in his order, adding the prosecutor. the affidavit was “riddled with negligence and error”.
Ogg spokesman Dane Schiller said prosecutors will still pursue the case.
“Justice Bynum’s gratuitous submissions call into question his fairness and impartiality; we plan to present all the evidence in this matter to a grand jury, ”said Schiller.
Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, was overseeing a vaccine distribution site on December 29, when an open vial of Moderna doses was left at the end of the day, around 6:30 p.m. Doses expired within six hours. hours, Gokal through his lawyer said he offered the vaccine to health workers and police at the scene, but they either refused or had already been vaccinated.
Gokal said he called a health department supervisor, who did not know of any available patients. He then used contacts in his cell phone and administered around nine doses offsite to eligible recipients: elderly residents or residents with certain medical conditions. Unable to find another recipient, Gokal said he gave his chronically ill wife the final dose after 11 p.m.
Gokal said he entered all recipients into the state’s database the next day as required. He was fired on Jan. 8 when Harris County public health officials determined he violated policy by withdrawing doses from a vaccination site.
In a press release last week, Ogg accused Gokal of stealing doses to give to family and friends. Gokal’s attorney Paul Doyle alleged the health department fired the doctor for distracting attention from a poorly managed vaccine deployment.
The government has an interest in making sure doctors follow vaccine distribution procedures, said Valerie Gutmann Koch of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. These rules must however be clear and transparent.
“It’s very hard not to feel sympathy for the doctor and all the different steps he has taken to make sure the vaccine goes into as many arms as possible,” Koch said.
The health department has yet to respond to a request from Chronicle regarding its vaccine distribution protocols. A spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the dismissal of the case on Monday.
Doyle said Gokal was preparing to sue Harris County for wrongful termination.
“An apology from Harris County Public Health and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to Dr. Gokal and his family will not be enough,” Doyle said. “The agency denigrated the name of this good official and took his job away for no reason.
Gokal, an emergency room doctor, started working for Harris County last April.
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