Dr. Hasan Gokal decided to give away 10 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that were about to be wasted, in what he believed was the responsible decision. All this came later it was “an absolute and utter shock” and “unexpectedly unexpected,” he told CBS News.
The Houston physician worked as an emergency response physician for the Harris County Department of Public Health, Texas, in the Office of Preparedness. He was also the medical director of COVID-19 vaccine deployment in the county.
In late December last year, he was overseeing a vaccination event for emergency workers, the county’s first public vaccination event, he said. Two weeks later, he would be fired and charged with theft for his actions that night.
When the event ended, one last person showed up for a shot. Therefore, a new Modern vaccine vial containing 11 doses was administered to administer the vaccine, which activated the six-hour time limit for the remaining 10 doses.
The remaining ten doses had to be in their arms within six hours or they would have to be released because they would have expired. Gokal said he was determined not to waste them. “It’s a county of 5 million people and we had the first 3,000 thousand doses. There was no room to launch any. Never,” he said. “When you have something so precious that saves your life, it would hurt to throw it away.”
Gokal said his first reaction was to offer the doses to the event workers, but they had already been inoculated or denied. Emergency workers had already left the site and police officers there had already obtained the vaccine or said they wanted to wait before taking it.
With no other options, Gokal called a Harris County public health official in charge of operations to share his plan to find 10 people and administer the remaining doses to them. He said he was told to go look for him.
As the event was the first time Harris County has begun vaccinating the public, Gokal said there was no county protocol he could have followed at the time: “They didn’t exist. This was a new scenario. … have a precedent, “he said.
Courtesy of Hasan Gokal
But he said there were guidelines from the Texas State Department of Health Services to always try to find eligible people at that level when there are leftover doses of vaccine at the end of a shift. If you can’t find anyone eligible, find someone willing and able to accept it. The agency’s message, Gokal said, was clear: “We don’t want to miss any dose. Period.”
“Right now, I’m starting to review my phone list, thinking about who might be in category 1 (b) (people over 65 or with a health condition that increases the risk of serious Covid-related illness) , said Dr. Gokal.
Efforts were made to find ten people who met the state’s vaccine requirements. Some were known; others, unknown. Among them were two women in their 70s. Two old women anchored in bed. His 70-year-old children, who were suffering from illness, were also shot. A mother with a child using a fan, for whom catching the virus, could have been a “death sentence,” Gokal said.
After midnight and just 20 minutes before the vaccine expired, the last person to receive the cancellation. Gokal said he had two options: throw away the last dose or administer it to his wife, who suffers from pulmonary sarcoidosis, a lung disease that leaves her breathless and can be fatal. Given his condition, he was eligible, the doctor said.
Gokal said he never intended or planned to give any shots to any of his relatives unless it was through the “proper channels,” but given the unusual circumstances, he gave the last dose to his wife.
He presented the documentation of the ten people he vaccinated the next day at work and was transparent about what had happened the day before with his colleagues and supervisor, he said. A week later, he was fired.
Human resources told him he should have returned the remaining doses, he said, even if that meant they would have been thrown away. Gokal, who emigrated from Pakistan when he was ten, said human resources also questioned the lack of fairness among the list of people he had inoculated, suggesting there were too many Indian names in the group.
The Harris County Public Health Communications Office said the department was unable to comment on the Gokal case.
Two weeks after he was fired, the doctor discovered he had been charged with theft and charged with breaking county protocols by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
“He abused his position to place his friends and family in front of people who had gone through the legal process to be there,” Ogg said. He said it had been a week before “he told a Harris County public health colleague, who then reported him to supervisors.”
Subsequently, a judge dismissed the charges. The judge’s ruling, which says that “the affidavit is full of negligence and errors,” noted that the state did not “sufficiently allege that the complainant had a greater right to possession of the vaccine than the defendant, who according to the sharpener’s own admission is “the medical adviser for the COVID-19 response.”
The district attorney still intends to pursue a case before a grand jury. Gokal’s lawyers expect it to take place in the next two weeks. If charged, he could face up to a year in prison.
Gokal’s attorney, Paul Doyle, said that when he requested copies of the written protocols and the waiting list the complaint referred to, a prosecutor told him there were none, nor that there was a written waiting list.
In an email, Dane Schiller, communications director for the district attorney, said the office could not comment on the case, but forwarded CBS News to the collection document.
Gokal said tears well up in his eyes every time he recounts the moment he learned charges had been brought against him.
He said the hardest thing he had to face was noticing the consequences the situation had on his loved ones: his wife was struggling to sleep and her condition was deteriorating. Her children now had difficulty focusing on homework: “It’s been devastating,” she said.
“When I’m in the emergency room, when there’s a question about what needs to be done, human life always overcomes any policy issue. No one ever questions it,” said Gokal, who has a background in emergency medicine. Now, he says he is dealing with the repercussions of not wasting a vaccine in the midst of a pandemic.
Gokal said he hopes his experience will not cause other doctors to lose the moral compass and dissuade themselves from doing “the right thing” when making decisions.
“It’s unfortunate that he was the first on the scene with these kinds of situations and that there weren’t several, when they realized that this should happen every time,” he said.
Earlier this month, both the Texas Medical Association and the Harris County Medical Society issued a statement supporting Gokal’s actions.
“It is difficult to understand any justification for accusing a well-meaning doctor in this situation of a criminal offense,” the statement said.
Regardless of the outcome of the legal process, Gokal fears for his career.
The indictment “made Dr. Gokal look horrible all over the world,” his lawyer said, and tarnished the career he has been building for two decades.
“Everyone read the initial story and the initial reaction was,‘ These were vaccines for my parents, grandparents and front-line workers. How dare you steal them? “Doyle said.
For now, Gokal spends his time volunteering at a health charity clinic.
“Given that the only alternative would be to throw out the vaccines, I wouldn’t have done anything different,” Gokal said. “I wouldn’t be a good doctor if I said I regretted doing it.”