Pakistani-American Doctor Fired for Giving away Expiring COVID19 Vaccine
By Riaz Haq
CA
Dr Hasan Gokal, Pakistani-American medical director of Harris County COVID Response Team, has been charged with stealing COVID19 Moderna vaccine and fired from his job, according to media reports.
Dr Gokal's "crime" is that he gave away unused coronavirus vaccine doses that would have expired and lost if not used within hours. A Texas judge has dismissed charges against him.
After administering COVID19 vaccine to all the front-line healthcare workers who showed up for their appointment, Gokal gave the remaining expiring doses of Moderna vaccine to acquaintances and strangers, including a bed-bound woman in her 90s, a woman in her 80s with dementia, several men and women in their 60s and 70s with health issues, and a mother with a child on a ventilator, according to the New York Times. After midnight and just minutes before the vial would expire, the final person called and said he wouldn’t make it. Gokal turned to his wife, who has a pulmonary disease that causes shortness of breath, and gave her the last dose.
Even after dismissal of charges against him, Dr Gokal doesn’t have a job and instead volunteers at a nonprofit health clinic. Now his lawyer is pursuing a wrongful termination lawsuit, according to ABC Channe l13. “An apology by Harris County Public Health and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office towards Dr Gokal and his family will not be enough,” Paul Doyle, Gokal’s lawyer, told the news outlet.
Dr Gokal is among thousands of Pakistani-American doctors who have been at the forefront of saving lives in the middle of the devastating COVID19 pandemic that has taken over 400,000 American lives so far. Among them is Dr Syra Madad, Pakistani-American head of New York City’s Health and Hospitals System-wide Special Pathogens Program, who is featured in a six-part Netflix documentary series "Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak".
Pakistani-American doctors are the third largest among foreign-educated doctors in America. Among the notable names of Pakistani-American doctors engaged in the fight against Covid-19 are: Dr Saud Anwar in Connecticut, Dr Gul Zaidi in New York and Dr Umair Shah in Texas. Their work has received positive media coverage in recent weeks.
Dr Saud Anwar, a Connecticut pulmonologist and state senator, came up with a ventilator splitter to deal with the shortages of life-saving equipment. Dr Gul Zaidi, an acute-care pulmonologist in Long Island, was featured in a CBS 60 Minutes segment on how doctors are dealing with unprecedented demands to save lives. Dr Umair Shah was interviewed about his work by ABC TV affiliate in Houston, Texas.
(Riaz Haq is a Silicon Valley-based Pakistani-American analyst and writer. He blogs at www.riazhaq.com)
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