PHILADELPHIA — Mayor Jim Kenney today directed the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) to take a number of corrective steps following issues surrounding Philly Fighting COVID’s (PFC) vaccine distribution.
Following this directive, which was delivered to Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, the Department of Public Health will be required to:
- Hold clinics to ensure that everyone who received a first dose of vaccine from PFC gets their second doses on time and from professionals who are qualified to administer it.
- Immediately allocate all first doses that had been previously allocated to PFC to the other health care organizations currently administering vaccines, with a special focus on providing an enhanced number of doses to the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium.
- Produce a public report within 30 days detailing how PFC came to work with PDPH in both testing and vaccination. The report must identify any and all weaknesses in the vetting process that could have prevented the present outcome and provide a set of intended improvements.
- Add Commerce Director Michael Rashid to any committee(s) constituted to review proposals to provide COVID-19 testing or vaccination services in partnership with PDPH.
In addition to these steps, Mayor Kenney also reminded Department of Public Health employees that under Executive Order 7-14, all officials and employees of the Executive Branch must report any knowledge, information or allegation brought to their attention that any person or entity may have engaged in waste, fraud corruption or abuse to the Office of the Inspector General.
The directive was sent to Dr. Farley in a letter, available here.