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CathedralEngine t1_j21eoo5 wrote

That Code of Conduct will get you every time.

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Varolyn t1_j21smvn wrote

Never Forget that Tom Farley was the one who enabled this idiot to run his “Philly Fighting COVID” program, and essentially gave the keys to the city’s initial vaccine drive to this scammer. And he kept defending this decision even though it was pretty obvious early on how terrible of an idea it was.

Thank God he resigned after he got busted for disposing the remains of the MOVE bombing victims.

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Trafficsigntruther t1_j222z69 wrote

> Thank God he resigned after he got busted for disposing the remains of the MOVE bombing victims.

What’s so wild about that story is his health department was so ineffective, they didn’t actually dispose of the remains as he ordered them to. They found the remains two days after he resigned.

Then he failed into a role responsible for reducing health disparities at the DC health department.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/thomas-farley-move-bombing-remains-dc-health-department.html

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jdmoney85 t1_j225zow wrote

This was seriously the craziest thing ever. I remember watching the news coverage of the vaccine clinic being like wtf?

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JawnStreetLine t1_j257d81 wrote

There’s a good podcast on it called Half-Vaxxed, pretty sure WHYY put it out. It was even wilder than I realized when it was going down.

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Trafficsigntruther t1_j21mky4 wrote

Should have just kept it a non profit and paid himself $350k/year.

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jimbexleyspeed t1_j21n6u3 wrote

That's one way to uno-reverso the alumni donation mailers.

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[deleted] t1_j21jhzr wrote

[deleted]

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j22bzsa wrote

the complaint is on PACER, free to access. He's also alleging Drexel discriminated against him on the basis of his race, which he identifies as Russian-American.

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worriedaboutlove t1_j256r21 wrote

For me, one of the worst things that came out of the 2020 racial reckoning is the growing number of completely bad faith arguments leveraged by white people (sometimes recent immigrants, not always though) who had no problem enjoying the spoils of whiteness and being categorized as white, until the concept of being white came under larger scrutiny - but still deny structural racism exists and that it negatively impacts actual people of color.

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Defiant-Ad412 t1_j25izk7 wrote

Not all white people enjoy the spoils that you’d claim they do

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worriedaboutlove t1_j25mi07 wrote

If it doesn’t apply (to you), then let it fly.

The Philly Fighting COVID dude certainly reveled in the assumed credibility given to young white men with money and access as he beat out older, more qualified POC to distribute life saving vaccines to a a city that is predominantly POC- but now that’s he’s been caught, he’s being discriminated against as a Russian-American? This is my point.

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Defiant-Ad412 t1_j25owjj wrote

Which POC are you referring to were passed off.

And why do you assume the only reason he was selected because he’s white? Do you have insight on the selection process? Or are you just making assumptions?

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worriedaboutlove t1_j2684dr wrote

Here you go:

​

https://whyy.org/transcript-watch-a-mans-feet-half-vaxxed/

In this transcript, you'll see a bit of the story about Dr. Ala Stanford, who is actually a doctor that has been working in Philly's low income Black communities, and how the City opted to select Andrei's fraudulent organization instead. I'm going to assume in good faith that you don't remember how this went down, given it was some time ago.

So, my question to you, is why would a 23 year old with no medical credentials and no history of successfully running a public health campaign be selected to be the distributor of vaccines for Philly's Department of Public Health, when there were actual doctors asking the city for those same resources?

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Defiant-Ad412 t1_j26csqh wrote

I don’t know why a 23 YO was selected, but the article doesn’t site a reason why other than AS’s assumption

> AS: I think some of it was just comfort, you know? And I don’t know that people will openly admit or say that, but some people are just more comfortable working with white men. He was familiar, he looked like someone’s son, he looked like someone’s nephew, and, you know, that’s why.

Who is she even saying is more comfortable working with white people?

Nothing about that article explains the selection process. It was mostly about black people needing to be prioritized first. Maybe she should have prioritize those at the highest risk of serious complications, like the elderly and immune compromised. But her entire emphasize is strictly on the black community. Maybe the city didn’t want somebody who was outspoken about focusing on skin color with regard to the disease. There are plenty of white tradespeople and laborers who are considered essential, but ig they don’t matter? Ig the disease effects blacks people differently than white people? Targeting the most at-risk should have been the goal, regardless of race.

Maybe he proposed a plan that made sense. But you wouldn’t know because the article doesn’t talk at all about his proposal/plans that he submitted.

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worriedaboutlove t1_j26foov wrote

There was no verifiable selection process that pointed to why Philly Fighting COVID was selected. That was part of the problem.

Secondly, it has been proven, ad nauseum at this point, that Black (and Brown) communities suffered the greatest due to comorbidities and having front line jobs that exposed them to more COVID, plus Black folks make up just about 44% of the city, followed by Latinos at 16% and Asians at 8%. Meaning, focusing on the 68% of the city that were at higher risk of severe outcomes - which is most of the city, at this point - makes sense.

You are being intentionally obtuse about the reasons why a completely unqualified 23 year old white man would be given this opportunity (hint: his corrupt city council connections, for one - which you can also read about). There are plenty of resources from the Philly Inquirer regarding Philly Fighting COVID, the fraud, the "selection process" and so on. Please do go find them. What I shared is one article, that references an entire documentary. Go watch that.

I'm recalling that you responded to my post initially to essentially say "not all white people". Given where this conversation has gone, it makes sense that derailing is your primary concern. Your goal in engaging in this conversation wasn't to learn more, it was to defiantly(per your username) deny the role of race, and, adjacently, wealth/access in one of the largest public health department scandals of this decade and create whataboutisms as if we're not talking about a man who is currently under investigation for insurance fraud, for giving vaccines to family and friends when thousands were dying, for allowing residents to be injected with vaccines by whomever he deemed qualified to do so, selling personal data, etc. etc. - the list goes on. This man is a criminal and is a bad person and is now saying the consequences he is facing for his very well documented crimes is because he is Russian-American, while at the same time receiving a very long benefit of the doubt, and as I mentioned above, assumed credibility and competence that is often afforded to white men in this country. That's another thing you can go read about. And, your knee-jerk response is, effectively, "not all white people" and/or "he could have had his reasons".

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Defiant-Ad412 t1_j26z91p wrote

Targeting people because of their skin color doesn’t directly target those that need it the most, and excludes those who need it. Vaccines werent widely available at that time, so an efficient manner of distributing that to those on the front lines and at-risk individuals was what was important. Nothing at all to do with race and there are much better ways to address the black community, rather than going around saying they’re the priority. AS could have had a unified message to target those at risk and encourage black people to get vaccinated.

You might mot remember, but there was a time the city didn’t have enough vaccines to vaccinate 68% of the population. So just vaccinating 68% without any consideration for an individuals need makes no sense and comes off extremely discriminatory and racist.

A large issue that was briefly addressed in your article was black peoples distrust of the vaccine. Which today really doesn’t make any sense. The vaccination clinics had white people getting jabbed 10 feet from black people. This isnt the Tuskegee experiments. That should have been a focus of hers, not just handing out vaccines based on skin color. People get too focused on giving statistics, but dont understand the actual issues nor do they look for actual solutions that make sense. Instead of saying “prioritize black people” ask why are they dying the most? Who exactly is it in that community? What are the specific reasons and how do we address that to TARGET THOSE MOST AT RISK? You said it yourself, frontline workers. So focus on those specific groups. Develop a plan for identifying those individuals and move on from there. When you just look at race stats, you miss soooo much of the bigger picture.

The goal of your comment was to derail the topic at hand and the crimes he committed, and turn it into a race issue. Quit making assumptions about everything and assuming your unverified conspiracies are truth. Not everything is about race. The world is filled with corrupt individuals, who are out for THEMSELVES more than their race. Theyre trying to benefit themselves and their family, not some random white person they never met. Thats how the world has evolved to where it is today. Corrupt people finding success being corrupt, and alot of people regardless of race face the consequences.

You’re clearly the type who thinks everything that happens to any black person happens because they’re black. Bringing up corruption by city council and you claim that thats why he received the contract despite most of city council members being black. and despite that this kid isnt even from the city. Who did he have connections with exactly? You have no idea, and are just making more baseless allegations.

And my username was from Reddit. So like your previous assumption, you jump to another assumption on MY selection process and how I selected it.

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KenzoWap t1_j21in5h wrote

The bigger crime (this lying pos needs to be in jail) was that none of the local medical systems Penn, Temple etc were doing anything with vaccine administration at that time.

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Trafficsigntruther t1_j21mg1q wrote

Iirc that was the city’s fault. Penn and Jefferson had no problem distributing vaccines outside Philly.

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Brraaap t1_j21n387 wrote

The city put out a request for quotes for someone to run the program, and Philly Fighting COVID had a slick plan. The ability to execute said plan? Not so much

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themightychris t1_j23lc2u wrote

>The ability to execute said plan? Not so much

I thought the reports at the time were that they were decently well set up? all the hoopla IIRC correctly was over him taking some left over doses home, setting up an LLC, and then bombing a press conference. What else was there?

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j23myxw wrote

There were issues relating to the way they were handling sensitive medical data, including a boiler-plate terms of service agreement that would have let him sell private data (the law prevents this and AFAIK he was never busted for actually selling the data). He also ghosted a ton of people after agreeing to run a testing event.

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themightychris t1_j23x7vh wrote

thanks, I recall the data terms bit. They didn't even have any sensitive medical data though they were just handing appointment setting and coordinating volunteers/venues though right?

people love dunking on this kid, and I get it it's fun, but the whole ordeal stunk to be at the time as lots of smoke and no fire and felt really self destructive for us as a city, esp once it rose to throwing our health officials under the bus

There was a lot of "why didn't this contract go to one of our big medical institutions?" but the project as far as I could tell was mostly about organizing volunteers and setting up appointment booking logistics quickly. The appointment booking systems all the big players set up were fkkkiinnngg teerrriiibbllee

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j23yy1n wrote

>They didn't even have any sensitive medical data though they were just handing appointment setting and coordinating volunteers/venues though right?

My recollection is that there were also questions about pre-existing health conditions that helped determine which patients qualified for which vaccine roll-out tiers.

My personal opinion is that it was a very scary time for everybody, and a lot of people hung a lot of hopes on the vaccines and, subsequently, on departments of public health to distribute them. This kid was absolutely a terrible choice to handle large scale vaccine distribution in Philadelphia, and heads definitely should have rolled at the Philly health department for it. Doroshin himself also put off extreme dumb-but-successful-frat-guy vibes, which made him super easy to dunk on. I guess I don't have an opinion as to whether dunking on Doroshin was bad for the city.

Was the amount of ridicule he received merited by his actual wrongdoing? I tend to doubt it. And, on the other side of the coin, I think Farley got off easy. But if there ever was a time for a person to say to himself, "Wow, this is actually a really important task, and maybe I just don't have the experience to do it effectively, even if I do have a plan to get rich off of it," then this was it.

ETA: WHYY also pushed a racial bias angle, because the people that got ghosted at testing events were mostly people of color, because the impact of the virus had a racial disparity, and because Doroshin was white and a more qualified black doctor was passed over for the contract. And I think when a story is framed as evil white guy victimizing disenfranchised people of color, it tends to cause the conversation to be more heated than it might have been otherwise. Plus there was a nationwide conversation about institutional racism that was unfolding at the same time. The whole thing struck a chord that resonated with a lot of people.

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Brraaap t1_j23mdvp wrote

Well, for one they switched from a non-profit to a for-profit and started selling the data of everyone that came to them for a vaccine or testing

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RoverTheMonster t1_j227321 wrote

>Andrei Doroshin alleged his former university did not allow him to defend himself before it labeled him a thief, expelled him for misconduct, and “very publicly branded [him] a racist, classist, elitist, leaving his entire future in ruins.”

Anyone have any info on this last bit (“branded him a racist, classist,” etc.)? Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t find anything with a quick Google search

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DancingOdin t1_j23fzav wrote

The funny part is that this type of sliminess is right down Drexel's alley. It's a shame he slept through the CYA 101 and Don't Get Caught 103 classes.

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LurkersWillLurk t1_j22avj9 wrote

Anyone have an actual copy of the lawsuit?

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j24dp06 wrote

philadelphia government is so incompetent its hard to even be mad at this guy

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Ams12345678 t1_j24yuj1 wrote

Didn’t he collect a bunch of personal information, too? If I remember correctly, there was an online questionnaire that I didn’t finish because something seemed off. Admittedly, this was so early in the pandemic and I really wanted to get vaccinated which is why I looked into it in the first place.

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Party_Plenty_820 t1_j22c0bc wrote

It looks like he did things within the bounds of the law and Drexel is covering its ass from a PR perspective. He seems slimy but not (legally) fraudulent. Can someone explain?

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c_pike1 t1_j22naps wrote

Part of his scheme involved recruiting volunteers to administer the vaccine, then billing Medicare and keeping the money. He also took vaccines and administered them to friends and family when they were supposed to be going to people with comorbidities.

I have no idea about the legal circumstances surrounding either of these, but an article I read around the time Philly fighting covid originally got exposed pointed them out as illegal.

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j22ozb1 wrote

They made a whole damn podcast Half Vaxxed on the shit this ass clown pulled. It was fraudulent and he should be serving time.

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