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A Texas doctor has been fired and criminally charged after being accused of stealing a vial of COVID-19 vaccine to give injections to friends and relatives.
Authorities say Dr Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a vial containing nine doses of Moderna vaccine while working at a vaccination site in Lyndsay Lyons Park, Humble, on the 29th. December.
The theft was reportedly discovered after Gokal bragged about it to a colleague the following week, who then reported it to supervisors.
Prosecutors later determined that Gokal, 48, used the vial to administer the vaccine to nine different people, including his wife.
“ 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, ” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.
“What he did was illegal and he will be held accountable under the law.
Authorities say Dr Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a vial containing nine doses of the Moderna vaccine.
The theft is said to have taken place while working at a vaccination site at Lyndsay Lyons Park (above), in Humble on December 29.
Ogg said Gokal ignored protocols to ensure the vaccine is given to frontline workers and people at higher risk of complications from COVID-19 instead of being wasted, adding that vaccine mismanagement may result in reduced county government funding.
Gokal’s lawyer Paul Doyle said in a written statement his client was a “ dedicated public servant ” looking forward to his day in court.
He added that his client hadn’t done anything wrong, insisting that the vial was already damaged but Gokal didn’t want it wasted.
‘[Gokal] ensured that doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that would otherwise have expired were in the arms of people who qualified to receive it, ”Doyle said.
‘Harris County would have preferred Dr Gokal to let the vaccines go to waste and attempt to belittle this man’s reputation in the process of supporting this policy. ”
Gokal was fired after an internal health department investigation.
He was charged with one count of the offense of theft by an official and faces up to one year in prison and a fine of $ 4,000 if convicted.
Prosecutors later determined that Gokal, 48, used the vial to administer the vaccine to nine different people, one of whom was his wife.
Gokal had been one of the faces of Harris County public health during the pandemic, having appeared regularly in videos and on town hall signs.
Records show he has practiced medicine for 21 years and is in good standing with the Texas Medical Board, with no disciplinary history.
Woods Nash, assistant professor of bioethics and medical humanities at the University of Houston College of Medicine, told ABC13: “ If the accusation against Dr Gokal is true, he has committed a significant breach of the trust of the public in the medical profession.
“We trust physicians and other healthcare professionals to put the best interests of their patients and the public ahead of their own goals and wishes.
“This expectation of altruism is not changed by the pandemic. In fact, the pandemic only increases the urgency to put aside personal interests that are in conflict with the public good, ”he continued.
Gokal has not been arrested and no hearing has been scheduled. His medical license is still active.
The rollout of the vaccine in the Houston area and other parts of Texas has been slower than expected, according to KHOU11.
Only 10% of Texans eligible for the first dose received them. In the Houston area, only Galveston and Fort Bend counties were vaccinated above this average, while Harris County was at 10%.
Gokal had been one of the faces of Harris County public health during the pandemic, having regularly appeared in videos and town hall panels.
Steven Brandenburg, 46, was arrested on December 31 and charged on Tuesday with trying to ruin more than 500 doses of the Moderna COVID vaccine
In Wisconsin, a pharmacist was arrested in December after being accused of ruining 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine because he believed the vaccine would mutate recipients’ DNA.
Steven Bandenburg, 46, was charged this week with an offense of attempted criminal damage to property.
Prosecutors said Bradenburg was a recognized conspiracy theorist who believed the vaccine would mutate the DNA of recipients. Medical experts say there is no truth to claims that COVID-19 vaccines genetically modify humans.
Brandenburg told a detective that he removed the vials from the medical center refrigerator for three hours on December 24 and then replaced them.
Then the next day at Christmas, he took the vials out of the refrigerator again and left them outside for nine hours, thinking that it would make the doses ineffective if not refrigerated for 12 hours. But he said a pharmacy technician found the vials and put them back in the refrigerator.
The Moderna vaccine is supposed to be stored between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit.
If found guilty, Brandenburg could face a fine of $ 10,000 and up to nine months in prison. He is due to return to court on March 18.
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