Sandra Santiago

Twenty-two-year-old Andrei Doroshin, opened up his own vaccine site in Philadelphia. However, on Monday January 25, 2021 the Department of Public Health shut down the site for potentially putting patient personal information at risk.

Doroshin, a graduate student at Drexel University, took matters into his own hands when it came to fighting COVID-19. When the City of Philadelphia spoke about looking for a partner to help with the vaccines, Doroshin jumped at the opportunity to help. He asked a friend to loan him money and he was given $250,000. The money worked to rent the convention center and to hire doctors, nurses, and volunteers.  However, Doroshin was accused of allegedly selling the data of patients.

According to The Guardian “City officials said they gave him the task because he and his friends had organized one of the community groups that set up Covid-19 testing sites throughout the city last year. But they shut the vaccine operation down once they learned that Doroshin had switched his privacy notice to potentially sell patient data, a development he calls a glitch that he quickly fixed.” Glitch or no Glitch the site was shut down and now they are looking for a new place to give vaccinations.

According to CBS Philly Doroshin stated “I’m a freaking grad student. But you know what? We did the job. We vaccinated 7,000 people,” the Drexel University student said. “This was us doing our part in this crazy time.”  Doroshin just wanted to do his part to help his city.

 Now Philly has one less vaccine site for COVID-19 patients. However, the shutdown didn’t stop Doroshin to give others the vaccine. He took four of the Pfizer vaccine and giving them to others. According to CBS Philly  “They either had to go  into an arm or be thrown out,” said Doroshin who said he had done intramuscular injections before. “I felt OK ethically…. There’s nothing that I did that was illegal.” Doroshin stands by his decisions and actions.