A network of medical clinics owned and operated by an ultra-Orthodox man is being investigated by New York authorities for allegedly inoculating members of the general public with a COVID-19 vaccine in violation of official deployment plans.
New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker announced Saturday the investigation into the ParCare community health network, in a statement that he may have obtained the vaccines “fraudulently” and administered doses to members of the public. “contrary to the state plan.”
People gather outside the synagogue of the Yetev Lev D’Satmar Congregation in Williamsburg, New York, October 2020
(Photo: AFP)
“We take it very seriously and DOH will assist the state police in a criminal investigation into this matter,” Zucker said in his statement, referring to the Department of Health.
“Anyone who has knowingly participated in this scheme will be liable to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to Zucker, ParCare allegedly violated “the state’s administrative plan” [the vaccine] first to front-line health workers, as well as residents and nursing home employees. ”
BoroPark24, a Yiddish-language news agency, reported on December 21 that the ParCare community health network had obtained 3,500 doses of the vaccine produced by Moderna and vaccinated 500 people that day.
The agency said that apart from Boro Park, ParCare has six locations in Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Bensonhurst, East Harlem and Kiryas Joel.
ParCare CEO Gary Schlesinger discussed New York State’s allegations in a statement to the New York Post, insisting that ParCare received permission to vaccinate patients and that only the dose was given to people. over 60 years of age or with underlying conditions.
He also told BoroPark that the Department of Health likes to work with clinics that have undergone a “rigorous approval process” by the state and that meet the requirements to care for the most diverse populations.
A Haredi man wears a surgical mask as he walks through New York’s Boro Park
(Photo: Reuters)
ParCare also wrote on Twitter that it would “actively cooperate with the New York State Department of Health on this issue” and insisted that it had “a long history of collaborating with New York City to provide vital health services. to New Yorkers who need “the majority.”
New York health officials have warned that areas most affected by the virus rise overlap with large ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in the Brooklyn and Queens districts and in a couple of nearby counties.
But tensions have been high between officials and Orthodox communities over social distancing measures imposed to stop the spread of COVID-19, which has ravaged Orthodox neighborhoods.