Houston doctor accused of stealing expiring COVID-19 vaccines sues county for discrimination
The Houston doctor fired for distributing expiring COVID-19 vaccines instead of throwing them out claims he was punished for giving “the vaccine to too many individuals with ‘Indian’ sounding names.”
Dr. Hasan Gokal has sued Harris County Public Health for $1 million, alleging that the agency “demonstrated a pattern of discrimination and hostility against Dr. Gokal based on his South Asian race and Pakistani national origin.”
“Dr. Gokal’s actions were heroic and directly in line with the orders from the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control. But HPCH proceeded to fire Dr. Gokal anyways, articulating that Dr. Gokal did not ‘equitably’ distribute the vaccine and gave the vaccine to too many individuals with ‘Indian’ sounding names,” the lawsuit, filed Tuesday, reads.
“At every turn, even prior to the vaccine roll-out, HCPH discriminated against Dr. Gokal for his South Asian race and Pakistani national origin which motivated HCPH’s decision to take adverse employment actions.”
Gokal was fired in early January, days after he raced around Houston distributing the remaining 10 Moderna doses from a vaccine site before the vial expired. After handing out nine to people with preexisting health conditions, he gave the 10th to his wife, who has a lung disease that affects her breathing.
The doctor reported the vaccinations to health officials the next morning, but was told that he should have thrown out the leftovers instead.
On Jan. 7, he was fired and eventually charged with misdemeanor theft. In July, a Texas grand jury declined to indict him.
But Gokal claims that Harris County Public Health lied about what happened when they reported him to the county, then district attorney’s office, including misreporting the number of doses administered and falsely claiming there was a waiting list of employees who were supposed to get spare doses. There was also no written protocol for handling leftovers, according to the lawsuit.
“HCPH’s termination and relentless false information campaign is the epitome of malice and recklessness. Indeed, HCPH never interviewed Dr. Gokal, never took his statement, never asked for his side of the story, conducted no internal investigation of the matter, and never sought to get the facts straight,” the lawsuit reads.
“Yet, HCPH, with malice and recklessness, sought to get Dr. Gokal stripped of his medical license (which is his livelihood) and indicted criminally for theft of a vial of vaccine that would have otherwise been thrown in the trash.”
A spokesperson for the Harris County Public Health did not immediately return a request for comment.
