John first brought up this story on Wednesday and ongoing investigations have only made it look worse. We’re talking about the formerly non-profit (but now for profit) “charity” group in Philadelphia called Philly Fighting COVID (PFC) and its founder, 22-year old grad student Andrei Doroshin. As John already reported, the young man in question hastily organized his organization to begin doing COVID testing in the city, setting up a website where people could register and make appointments. The problem is, none of this activity was sanctioned by the City Council. The group later switched over to the more profitable activity of scheduling and administering vaccines.

Even more disturbing was a report at the end of John’s article where a nurse at one of the PFC vaccination sites reported seeing Doroshin taking a “bundle” of doses already loaded into syringes and putting them in his bag before leaving the site for the day. Social media posts later emerged showing the grad student apparently preparing to vaccinate someone at a private party. A PFC spokesperson later tried to claim that Doroshin had attended a “small party” but no vaccines were administered. That turned out to be a lie and now the 22-year-old wannabe wunderkind has owned up to the deed, but it still sounds like he’s trying to mislead the public and deflect the blame. (CBS Philadelphia)

Questions continue to build over Philadelphia’s partnership with the organization Philly Fighting COVID. Andrei Doroshin, a 22-year-old Drexel University graduate student who started the organization, told NBC News program “Today” that he did take four doses of vaccine home and administered them to friends.

Doroshin said he first tried to get those doses to people who were high-risk.

He said he “called everybody they knew,” but he couldn’t find anyone, before the doses were going to expire.

Doroshin goes on to say that he understands he made a mistake, and will “carry it” for the rest of his life, but he still “stands by the decision.”

Here’s the brief CBS News video report where Doroshin attempts to explain his decision.

I fail to understand why this isn’t a bigger deal than it’s being made out to be. It seems obvious that Doroshin was trying to cash in on the pandemic, even if some of his efforts may have proven beneficial under less dubious circumstances. But the real sticking point for me was the way he simply grabbed some syringes and walked away with them, later administering them to his friends.

I’m also wondering how anyone allowed this kid to walk up to them at a party and stick a needle in their arm. He isn’t a nurse. He’s not even a medical student. What qualified him to administer vaccines and hand out CDC record cards? Back in the day, when I used to do a lot of volunteer work at a Humane Society animal shelter, I wound up in a position where I had to vaccinate some of the animals. But I wasn’t even allowed to do that without first passing an instruction course with veterinary technicians. And that was just to vaccinate cats, not human beings. (It’s surprisingly easy to do, by the way.)

Doroshin’s story about how this unfolded doesn’t add up either, at least according to the witness who initially revealed this news. He’s claiming that there was nobody left to vaccinate and the doses would have gone to waste. But the nurse told reporters that she had stayed late that day because there were still people waiting for vaccinations. Other people who showed up at the site (who were above the minimum age) were crying because they were told there were no more appointments available. That doesn’t square with Doroshin’s story at all.

And how did Mr. Doroshin handle the vaccinations at the party? Was the appropriate contact tracing information collected and submitted? Who signed the CDC record cards? Who watched the “patients” for 30 minutes after receiving the vaccine and were there any qualified medical personnel on hand in case someone had a severe allergic reaction?

I know there are laws on the books about practicing medicine without a license. This kid could have literally killed someone with this stunt. Rather than just looking into this as a case of fraud, a prosecutor should be talking to Andrei Doroshin and Doroshin should probably be talking to a lawyer.