PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Tom Farley says his department "made a mistake" when it turned large-scale vaccine clinics over to the group Philly Fighting COVID. His comment came on Friday in response to an order from Mayor Jim Kenney that the Department of Public Health do a full report on how it came to work with the group.
In a letter made available to KYW Newsradio, Kenney said the department has 30 days to produce a report on how it came to work with the controversial testing and vaccination group.
The letter expresses full support for and confidence in Dr. Farley’s handling of the pandemic for the past 10 months. However, it says, the department’s association with Philly Fighting COVID has cast a shadow on the vaccination process.
The mayor suggests four actions to get back on track:
• A clinic to ensure second doses for everyone who got their first shot from the group
• Redistribution of all vaccine that had been allotted to the group, with a special focus on getting more doses to the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium
• Inclusion of Commerce Director Michael Rashid — who has a background in health care systems — in all future vaccine proposals
• The report, identifying weaknesses in the screening process and suggested improvements
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The mayor’s tone was emphatic but measured, particularly compared to the high-volume demands on Thursday from several city councilmembers. Philly Fighting COVID briefed council on its testing program in November, and no member raised objections at that time.
Farley explained the group seemed to fill an urgent need.
“The hospitals were very busy vaccinating their own health care workers. Then there was a pressing demand to vaccinate the health workers who work in, say, doctors’ offices and then we felt there was a pressing need to vaccinate home health aides. These are people who are low-paid, largely minority, they have no central health facility that they’re affiliated with and this was an organization that said we can run a high-output operation, vaccinate more than 1,000 people a day, and so I hope that people understand the urge to get those people vaccinated is what led to this and at least we were trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Farley told KYW Newsradio that he supports the mayor’s demand for a full account of what happened.
“The mayor said, ‘OK, there’s a mistake that happened here and I want to understand how it occurred and how to make it right and so he charged us to do that and I think that’s what a leader ought to do.”
The health department cut ties with the group this week after a number of moves that Farley says caused concern: It dropped its testing commitment, incorporated as a for-profit, and left open the possibility of selling personal information collected from its online registration form. The group's founder, Drexel graduate student Andrei Doroshin, said he has changed the policy.
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Doroshin admitted in a broadcast interview that he removed vaccine doses from a clinic intended for unaffiliated health care workers and gave them to friends and family. He said the doses were leftover and would have expired without being used. Doroshin has no medical background.
“I’m, as the leader of the health department, I’m responsible for everything that occurred here so if a mistake occurred in the health department, I’m responsible for that,” Farley responded when asked if he bears some responsibility.