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Philadelphia Health Commissioner Calls Claim Of Philly Fighting COVID CEO Taking Home Bag-Full Of Vaccines 'Disturbing'

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's health commissioner is addressing a claim that Philly Fighting COVID's CEO allegedly took home vaccine doses from a mass vaccination clinic. Katrina Lipinsky, who says she is a registered nurse and volunteered for the clinic over the weekend, posted on Twitter that Andrei Doroshin, the CEO for Philly Fighting COVID, "took home a ziplock bag-full of vaccines."

"Stuffed them in his bag and left with them," Lipinsky claimed.

Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley called the alleged report "disturbing" after the city terminated its relationship with the organization after it changed its status from nonprofit to for-profit.

"I saw earlier today a claim in a tweet that the organization might have diverted some doses. If that's true, that's very disturbing, they shouldn't do that," Dr. Farley said during Tuesday's press conference. "As you know, we've stopped our relationship with this organization. But we're going to try to do what we can to find out if there were any missing doses and, as I said, we will not be working with that organization in the future."

Lipinsky tweeted that she told the group's medical staff chief about the incident, but the alleged response was the Philadelphia Health Department "supports that so we don't waste vaccines."

"While I vaccinated folks I'd ask them what they did for work. I vaccinated many, many people who did not fall into 1a or 1b categories. That's when I started to realize it was a disaster of an operation. PFC gave it's own volunteers BS answers when questioned on these problems," Lipinsky tweeted.

Dr. Farley reassured residents that those who got their first vaccination through Philly Fighting COVID will still get their second dose on time.

"We will assure that everybody who got their first dose through Philly Fighting COVID gets their second dose," the health commissioner said.

Doroshin didn't address the allegation of taking vaccines from the clinic, but did apologize "for the mistake in our privacy policy."

"We are grateful for the Health Department and the opportunity provided. We understand that there have been legitimate inquiries into our privacy policies. There was language in our privacy policy that was problematic and as soon as we became aware of it, we removed it. I apologize, for the mistake in our privacy policy. We never have and never would sell, share, or disseminate any data we collected as it would be in violation of HIPAA [sic] rules," Doroshin said.

According to the city, Philly Fighting COVID's corporate structure changed from a nonprofit to a for-profit. The change in structure came with changes to their privacy policy. The city's health department says they are currently looking for other providers to administer the vaccines.

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