topic Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪 in Community Chat

💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Mz iMac — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 23:27:20 GMT

PHILADELPHIA -- The city of Philadelphia has cut ties with a COVID-19 vaccine provider, saying it lost "trust in them as an organization," after a slew of controversial moves by the group and its 22-year-old CEO, who admitted Thursday he took vaccine doses and administered them to four friends.

Additionally, Philly Fighting COVID (PFC) unexpectedly shuttered its COVID-19 testing operations to focus on vaccine administration and changed from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit entity -- a shift the health department said it learned about from local news outlets.

Concerns were also raised about changes to PFC's privacy policy that would allow it to sell patients' data collected through their online registration site, according to a report from a local news outlet.

"Trust is the most important thing we have when giving out vaccine, and we couldn't ask Philadelphians to trust an outfit that we no longer trusted," James Garrow, a spokesman for Philadelphia's Department of Public Health, told CNN on Thursday. "So we immediately ended the relationship."

The department announced Tuesday it "will no longer work with Philly Fighting COVID to provide testing or vaccines, effective immediately," following local news reports of growing concerns around PFC's operations.

WHYY, a public news outlet, reported on January 20 that the PFC's sudden shift to a profit-making business to "focus on vaccine operations" left some Philadelphia communities and residents without testing with no warning.

WHYY later reported on PFC's updated privacy policy, which Garrow told the outlet "could allow the organization to sell data collected through PFC's pre-registration site," though the city has no proof any data was sold. PFC's CEO has denied it ever sold any data.

On top of all that, 22-year-old CEO Andrei Doroshin said in an interview on NBC's "Today" on Thursday he had taken COVID-19 vaccines intended for eligible recipients and administered them to four of his friends.

Doroshin said he was trying to prevent the doses from going to waste and that he couldn't find anyone else who might need the vaccine more than his friends before they expired.

"The doses were about to expire," he told NBC. "We called everybody we knew. Every single person."

CNN has reached out to Doroshin for comment but has not heard back.

Philly Fighting COVID is opening a testing site at The Fillmore.

Group vaccinated approximately 6,800 people

On Tuesday, after the city announced it would no longer supply PFC with vaccines, Doroshin said in a statement he never hid the group's intentions to transition to a for-profit business.

"Vaccinating large groups of people takes resources, manpower, and ultimately financial help. ... We have always intended on scaling up the number of clinics to eventually vaccinate more people (we have been working for months on plans to scale-up vaccinations and have shared them with the city) and money is needed to do that," he said.

Doroshin said his PFC never had and "never would sell, share, or disseminate any data we collected as it would be in violation of HIPAA rules," and that "problematic" language in the company's privacy policy has been removed.

He also stated that his company pivoted from testing to providing vaccines because "we did not have enough resources to do both and made a choice to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible, as we believe that is what will help end this pandemic."

Approximately 6,800 people received their first of two vaccine doses from PFC, according to the company. The city's health department says it is contacting everyone who received those doses to scheduled their second dose with another facility.

Philly Fighting COVID plans to have a news conference on the matter Friday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health announced it is no longer working with Philly Fighting COVID to provide testing or vaccines.

Allegations 'are serious,' AG says

Philly Fighting COVID was first awarded a contract from the city to provide COVID-19 testing services in August 2020, according to Garrow, the spokesman for the city's department of health. At the time, the group presented itself as a nonprofit.

Doroshin had previously been the subject of positive news coverage, focusing on his group's initial efforts to use a 3D printer to make face shields for hospital workers, before turning to testing, according to an NBC News report earlier this month.

It was mid-January when the health department "heard rumors of canceled testing events," but contracted testing providers are allowed to set their own schedules.

The health department later learned through news reports that PFC had canceled all of its testing events in mid-January, despite the fact the group is contracted to provide those services through January 31.

Garrow said Doroshin had "mentioned off-handedly" the group was considering switching to a for-profit entity in early January and was told it wouldn't be an issue, since the city has vaccine providers who are both for-profit and nonprofit. But the health department learned the change took place in December without its knowledge after news outlets informed health officials.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's office is reviewing allegations against Philly Fighting COVID, according to a spokeswoman for the office.

In his own statement, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the allegations "are serious and any consumers who believe they have been misled should file a complaint with our office," either by phone or online.

"Taking advantage of people and their privacy under the guise of serving as a nonprofit is not only unethical -- it can also be against Pennsylvania law," Shapiro said.

SOURCE: actionnews dot com

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

riley1 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:01:15 GMT

@Mz iMac - I read about this in the news today. You aren't kidding when you say hot mess!

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

FiddleDeeDee — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:09:59 GMT

Was only a matter of time. There will ALWAYS be those looking to make money off the suffering of others. This world event has truly shown the true colors of many. I feel so bad for those who trusted this POS.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

PickyPicky3 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:47:23 GMT

I have been following every detail of this incredible story. What do you think: a movie? a PBS Frontline? Will heads roll?

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Citrine1 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:09:45 GMT

Well, let's face it @Mz iMac , we're a hot mess here in Philly for lots of reasons!

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

PickyPicky3 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:10:41 GMT

@FiddleDeeDee wrote:
Was only a matter of time. There will ALWAYS be those looking to make money off the suffering of others. This world event has truly shown the true colors of many. I feel so bad for those who trusted this POS.

The trust had to follow due diligence, which does not seem to have occurred. We're still missing so much information....

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

PA Mom-mom — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:13:56 GMT

@Mz iMac We get what we deserve. Our elected leaders reflect the electorate.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

maximillian — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:15:09 GMT

My daughter and family live AND WORK IN PHILLY. SHE IS A NURSE PRACTICIONER IN A REPUTABLE HOSPITAL. PLEASE DO NOT BRAND AN ENTIRE CITY AND POPULATION FOR THE SHADY WORK OF A FEW.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Mz iMac — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:45:59 GMT

@maximillian Not sure who your response was directed to but I am from Philly & use to work there. No hospitals were involved reputable or not (I didn't know Philly had unreputaable hospitals). This whole mess was started by a non-profit NOW FOR PROFIT organization run by a 22 yr old college student & his "college student" friends w/no experiences in the medical field.

No one in this thread is "branding" the city or its population.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

PickyPicky3 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:04:40 GMT

Some background info:

-Philadelphia is one of a number of American cities that is administering its own testing/vaccine program. It doesn't fall under the supervision of Pennsylvania.

-There are NO medical professionals in Philly Fighting Covid's leadership group.

-Philly Fighting Covid was given the contract to do vaccinations at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the heart of the city. Certainly one of the "crown jewels" in Philadelphia's covid program. Now that huge site is closed.

The question is WHY, in a city so rich in legitimate medical resources, would an organization like this be given such an important responsibility?

I can create many scenarios in my head, but I don't know the answer.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Mz iMac — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:13:32 GMT

@PickyPicky3 What has NOT been said........

Who gave shots to those 6000+ folks? College students??????

The 22 yr old CEO is now in hiding. He's received death threats.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Porcelain — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:34:05 GMT

Speaking to Today, Doroshin said that his lack of a traditional public health background allowed him to “think a little differently” and speed up the vaccination process. In another interview he expressed hopes of setting up a McDonald’s-like franchise and suggested that best practices for administering vaccine doses “can go out the window.”

Philly Fighting COVID’s young, entrepreneurial leaders also openly talked about the potential for profit, one former volunteer told WHYY: “They were bragging about how rich they were going to get.” Another volunteer said the group’s executives “said they were gonna be millionaires” by billing insurance providers for administering vaccine doses that Philly Fighting COVID got free. (Doroshin has disputed these allegations.)

The city’s partnership with the group began drawing scrutiny last week after WHY reported that Philly Fighting COVID had abruptly backed out of plans to host coronavirus testing clinics in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods and “completely ghosted” community leaders, as one pastor put it. Then, on Saturday, dozens of seniors lined up for hours to be vaccinated at the Pennsylvania Convention Center only to be turned away because the group had accidentally allowed too many people to sign up.

"There were literally 85-year-old, 90-year-old people standing there in tears, with printed appointment confirmations, saying: ‘I don’t understand why I can’t get vaccinated. I’m 85,’ ” one witness told the station.

A registered nurse who volunteered with the group categorized it as a “disaster of an operation.” Katrina Lipinsky told the Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY that she wasn’t asked for her medical credentials before she began administering vaccine doses, and that plenty of unused doses were left over after seniors were turned away on Saturday. She alleged that she saw Doroshin place between 10 and 15 of those doses in his bag and take them with him when he left.

The 22-year-old CEO attended a small gathering with friends that night, according to WHYY, and a photo that circulated on Snapchat appeared to show him “getting ready to administer an unspecified syringe” to an individual in a private home.

Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said at a Tuesday briefing that the allegations were “very disturbing” if true, and that any leftover vaccine doses should have been returned to the city. He also said that “in retrospect” it was a mistake to partner with the group."

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Ya think?????

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"Doroshin’s main qualification might have been that he’s audacious enough to suggest he’s qualified in the first place. There’s no denying his knack for salesmanship. His bio on the Philly Fighting COVID webpage states that he began his career as a director of photography for AND Productions in Los Angeles, formed and taught at the Rancho Mirage Film Department, then resigned to start a nonprofit focused on air pollution.

Left unsaid is the fact that AND Productions was founded by Doroshin’s father and appears to have no real online footprint. The YouTube channel for Doroshin’s other film project, a production company he founded called SpeedJumpFilms, includes one short film, along with videos of people longboarding and doing not-especially-impressive parkour routines. The Rancho Mirage Film Department was a high-school film class Doroshin helped teach while he was a student there, and the nonprofit he started, Invisible Sea, mostly consisted of a meme-heavy Twitter account, some minor community lobbying, and a fund-raiser with a $50,000 goal that netted $684. (“It didn’t do very well,” Doroshin says of the nonprofit. He also admits that his time at AND Productions — when he was a 14-year-old making short films with his dad — probably shouldn’t have been on his official bio. “I’m sorry about that,” he says.)

Other members of Philly Fighting COVID’s leadership don’t seem to have the qualifications typical of a group running a complex public-health operation, either. The group’s chief science officer is Karol Osipowicz, a Drexel neuroscience professor who also happens to be Doroshin’s academic adviser, not to mention a non-academic adviser to Doroshin’s real estate venture, Tala Resorts. In his official Philly Fighting COVID bio, Johnathan Lawless, the group’s “head of systems” (and the co-founder of the biotech company for which Doroshin moonlights as chief business officer), says he graduated from Drexel in 2019 with a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering and claims to have “played important roles at Johnson & Johnson,” though according to his LinkedIn profile, he only worked there for seven months while still in school.

No one on the group’s “executive team” boasts an advanced degree in public health or is an MD, though there are a few nurses and one doctor on the “operations team.” Many staffers appear to be in their 20s. And in a city that has struggled mightily to vaccinate Black people — a group that has received just 12 percent of all vaccines despite accounting for 44 percent of the population — everyone in a leadership position at Philly Fighting COVID is white. (Shortly after the city broke off its partnership with Philly Fighting COVID, the organization deleted its list of staff from its website, an action Doroshin says he took because staffers were being harassed.)

Doroshin insists that his background doesn’t really matter; when the government and health-care institutions were scrambling to respond to the pandemic, his group stepped up. “Our expertise is we’re just trying to help,” he says."

Yeah...about that....Toxic entitlement.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

PickyPicky3 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:25:01 GMT

@Mz iMac I also have not heard that information, but I assume it was nurses. Philly Fighting Covid acted as administrator. (But who knows?)

This is when you need really old-fashioned aggressive reporting. I haven't seen that yet; hope they're working on it.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Mz iMac — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:29:24 GMT

@PickyPicky3 Yeah, where are those Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporters from The Philadelphia Inquirer???

This story will be on PBS Frontline before Easter. Was it you that mentioned Frontline earlier?

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

FiddleDeeDee — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:30:35 GMT

@PickyPicky3 The average person trusts that those in charge will do the right thing. The average person doesn't have a say in much of anything; let's not kid ourselves. History has shown that if there is an opportunity for those who care only about what they want to get what they want and it brings harm in some way to everyone else....they'll still do it because they can.

I work in a hospital. I see and hear the politics and the ****** that goes on all the time. My DH sees it in his field as well (non medical). Maybe we're just jaded; who knows. But as I said, if there's a chance for some POS to line their pockets and step on everyone else who trusted them...they will.

Btw, NO state is exempt from this. Philly is where my moms' family came from (and many still are). I spent a good part of my life growing up there. This isn't a dig at Philly in ANY way (not saying you were doing that, just putting it out there).

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

PickyPicky3 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:43:12 GMT

This is a terrible time in history to be an "elderly," but I am so glad I'm retired.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Drythe — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 02:44:17 GMT

@Porcelain wrote:
Speaking to Today, Doroshin said that his lack of a traditional public health background allowed him to “think a little differently” and speed up the vaccination process. In another interview he expressed hopes of setting up a McDonald’s-like franchise and suggested that best practices for administering vaccine doses “can go out the window.”

Philly Fighting COVID’s young, entrepreneurial leaders also openly talked about the potential for profit, one former volunteer told WHYY: “They were bragging about how rich they were going to get.” Another volunteer said the group’s executives “said they were gonna be millionaires” by billing insurance providers for administering vaccine doses that Philly Fighting COVID got free. (Doroshin has disputed these allegations.)

The city’s partnership with the group began drawing scrutiny last week after WHY reported that Philly Fighting COVID had abruptly backed out of plans to host coronavirus testing clinics in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods and “completely ghosted” community leaders, as one pastor put it. Then, on Saturday, dozens of seniors lined up for hours to be vaccinated at the Pennsylvania Convention Center only to be turned away because the group had accidentally allowed too many people to sign up.

"There were literally 85-year-old, 90-year-old people standing there in tears, with printed appointment confirmations, saying: ‘I don’t understand why I can’t get vaccinated. I’m 85,’ ” one witness told the station.

A registered nurse who volunteered with the group categorized it as a “disaster of an operation.” Katrina Lipinsky told the Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY that she wasn’t asked for her medical credentials before she began administering vaccine doses, and that plenty of unused doses were left over after seniors were turned away on Saturday. She alleged that she saw Doroshin place between 10 and 15 of those doses in his bag and take them with him when he left.

The 22-year-old CEO attended a small gathering with friends that night, according to WHYY, and a photo that circulated on Snapchat appeared to show him “getting ready to administer an unspecified syringe” to an individual in a private home.

Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said at a Tuesday briefing that the allegations were “very disturbing” if true, and that any leftover vaccine doses should have been returned to the city. He also said that “in retrospect” it was a mistake to partner with the group."

--------
Ya think?????
--------

"Doroshin’s main qualification might have been that he’s audacious enough to suggest he’s qualified in the first place. There’s no denying his knack for salesmanship. His bio on the Philly Fighting COVID webpage states that he began his career as a director of photography for AND Productions in Los Angeles, formed and taught at the Rancho Mirage Film Department, then resigned to start a nonprofit focused on air pollution.

Left unsaid is the fact that AND Productions was founded by Doroshin’s father and appears to have no real online footprint. The YouTube channel for Doroshin’s other film project, a production company he founded called SpeedJumpFilms, includes one short film, along with videos of people longboarding and doing not-especially-impressive parkour routines. The Rancho Mirage Film Department was a high-school film class Doroshin helped teach while he was a student there, and the nonprofit he started, Invisible Sea, mostly consisted of a meme-heavy Twitter account, some minor community lobbying, and a fund-raiser with a $50,000 goal that netted $684. (“It didn’t do very well,” Doroshin says of the nonprofit. He also admits that his time at AND Productions — when he was a 14-year-old making short films with his dad — probably shouldn’t have been on his official bio. “I’m sorry about that,” he says.)

Other members of Philly Fighting COVID’s leadership don’t seem to have the qualifications typical of a group running a complex public-health operation, either. The group’s chief science officer is Karol Osipowicz, a Drexel neuroscience professor who also happens to be Doroshin’s academic adviser, not to mention a non-academic adviser to Doroshin’s real estate venture, Tala Resorts. In his official Philly Fighting COVID bio, Johnathan Lawless, the group’s “head of systems” (and the co-founder of the biotech company for which Doroshin moonlights as chief business officer), says he graduated from Drexel in 2019 with a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering and claims to have “played important roles at Johnson & Johnson,” though according to his LinkedIn profile, he only worked there for seven months while still in school.

No one on the group’s “executive team” boasts an advanced degree in public health or is an MD, though there are a few nurses and one doctor on the “operations team.” Many staffers appear to be in their 20s. And in a city that has struggled mightily to vaccinate Black people — a group that has received just 12 percent of all vaccines despite accounting for 44 percent of the population — everyone in a leadership position at Philly Fighting COVID is white. (Shortly after the city broke off its partnership with Philly Fighting COVID, the organization deleted its list of staff from its website, an action Doroshin says he took because staffers were being harassed.)

Doroshin insists that his background doesn’t really matter; when the government and health-care institutions were scrambling to respond to the pandemic, his group stepped up. “Our expertise is we’re just trying to help,” he says."

Yeah...about that....Toxic entitlement.

@Porcelain

SMH.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

MoonieBaby — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 04:00:25 GMT

as a resident of this city - it's a boiling hot molten lava mess for One Thousand reasons.... this isn't even in the top 100 as far as THIS resident is concerned.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

gardenman — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 13:05:34 GMT

How does a 22-year-old kid with an unimpressive background get such an important job in Philly? He knew the right people. That's how things work in Philly.

I always marvel how the citizens of Philly have so little patience with their sports teams' leadership, often wanting to fire a coach/manager after one bad game, but tolerate decades (literally) of bad leadership and keep putting the same people back in charge. The reality is the effective leadership of a sports team has little to do with your day-to-day life, but those running the city affect your life in major ways on a daily basis, yet somehow the same people who want to hang a bad coach just keep putting bad leaders back in power. There's an odd disconnect that's hard to understand.

The Eagles new coach Nick Sirianni had his first press conference yesterday and some want him gone already because a week after taking the job in January he wouldn't announce who his starting QB would be in September. Those same citizens will reelect whoever hired this stupid kid and not think twice about it. It's a little hard to understand how that all works. The willingness to accept gross incompetence among city leaders while demanding perfection from athletes/coaches is an odd disconnect.

Re: 💉😲💉 Philly: What a hot mess!!!!! 🧪

Imaoldhippie — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 13:23:25 GMT

Things like this show just how despicable human's are. I for one am not surpised how cowardly people are.