A Brooklyn clinic that is being investigated for allegedly fraudulently obtaining and diverting the much-coveted COVID-19 vaccines said Sunday it is no longer firing.
A handwritten sign that says “NO VACCINES !!” was recorded on the front door of the ParCare community health network storefront in Williamsburg after The Post asked if injections were available.
Five people were seen going to the 445 Park Ave clinic. but a journalist was denied entry, with a nurse saying, “We only allow people to enter by appointment.”
When asked if patients were inoculated with coronavirus, the nurse said, “We don’t have any vaccines.”
A man who showed up later was also denied entry, and later said he was “of course” there to be shot.
“That’s not right,” he fainted.
“I know people.”
A middle-aged man passing by said vaccinations had been done there before.
“My dad got the vaccine here,” the man said. “What, should I die for some political decision?”
Mark Meyer Appel, who directs The Bridge Multicultural Advocacy Project in Brooklyn, told The Post that he was shot at the clinic Wednesday after learning the vaccine was available.
Appel, 68, said he needs to be inoculated against COVID-19 because he has diabetes and operates a food pantry that puts him in touch with many people.
“I’ve been out of the vanguard more than the average person,” he said.
Appel also said he “is not ashamed to be fired,” but admitted he withdrew a Facebook post about it in response to online criticism.
On Saturday, the State Department of Health announced that it was assisting state police in a criminal investigation by ParCare, a nonprofit organization that runs six clinics in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Orange County.
The investigation involves allegations that ParCare’s Orange County operation in Kiryas Joel, “may have fraudulently obtained the COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state.” in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public, “said Commissioner Howard Zucker.
Zucker called the scam “contrary to the state’s administrative plan [vaccines] first to front-line health workers, as well as to nursing home residents and staff ”.
“Anyone who has knowingly participated in this scheme will be liable to the fullest extent of the law,” he added.
On December 21, ParCare claimed to have received 3,500 doses of the Modern vaccine, and CEO Gary Schlesinger said on the BoroPark24 website: “Hundreds of patients were already vaccinated today and people keep coming in.”
In a series of tweets early Sunday, ParCare said “attempts have been made to provide critical medical services and administer COVID-19 vaccines to those qualified to receive them according to New York State Department of Health guidelines.”
“As we actively cooperate with the New York State Department of Health on this issue, we will continue to provide high-quality health services to help New York emerge from this pandemic,” he added.