Dr. Hasan Gokal is a doctor who worked in Houston, Texas. His work history included much charitable efforts such as during Hurricane Maria in 2017.
In December, a batch of COVID-19 vaccine had been opened. There were ten shots left and no one assigned to receive them. Dr. Gokal make the decision that rather than let it go to waste, he would find ten people and give them their first round of the vaccine.
When incompetent and arrogant bean counters learnt what he did, he was fired. Then he was charged with theft.
It doesn’t matter that the charges were dismissed, this is a stain on his record, and those who made the decision to harass and falsely accuse him have faced no consequences. I have to question the intelligence of anyone who describes his actions as other than responsible, decent, and quick thinking.
The Vaccine Had to Be Used. He Used It. He Was Fired.
The Texas doctor had six hours. Now that a vial of Covid-19 vaccine had been opened on this late December night, he had to find 10 eligible people for its remaining doses before the precious medicine expired. In six hours.
Scrambling, the doctor made house calls and directed people to his home outside Houston. Some were acquaintances; others, strangers. A bed-bound nonagenarian. A woman in her 80s with dementia. A mother with a child who uses a ventilator.
After midnight, and with just minutes before the vaccine became unusable, the doctor, Hasan Gokal, gave the last dose to his wife, who has a pulmonary disease that leaves her short of breath.
For his actions, Dr. Gokal was fired from his government job and then charged with stealing 10 vaccine doses worth a total of $135 — a shun-worthy misdemeanor that sent his name and mug shot rocketing around the globe.
[. . .]
Late last month, a judge dismissed the charge as groundless, after which the local district attorney vowed to present the matter to a grand jury. And while prosecutors portray the doctor as a cold opportunist, his lawyer says he acted responsibly — even heroically.
“Everybody was looking at this guy and saying, ‘I got my mother waiting for a vaccine, my grandfather waiting for a vaccine,’” the lawyer, Paul Doyle, said. “They were thinking, ‘This guy is a villain.’”
Dr. Gokal, 48, immigrated from Pakistan as a boy and earned a medical degree at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. After working at hospitals in Central New York, he moved to Texas in 2009 to oversee the emergency department at a suburban Houston hospital. His volunteer work has included rebuilding homes and providing medical care after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
I am really glad Cheetolini is out of a job. Now we can hope racist and islamophobic attitudes and anti-science stupidity stops.