5 ms·

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the CEO sounds like a fraudster and has bungled appointments, leaving people disappointed. On the other hand,

by ipsum2 6y ago

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the CEO sounds like a fraudster and has bungled appointments, leaving people disappointed. On the other hand, he did get a decent amount (the website claims 6,000 people over 5 days) of people vaccinated, and has real medical staff on hand: http://web.archive.org/web/20210115174959/https://phillyfightingcovid.com/team http://web.archive.org/web/20210115174959/https://phillyfigh... (the page has been pulled down), so its not completely fradulent. Additionally, charging insurance companies for the shot isn't bad, if the staff / space rentals need to get paid. I'm not confident hospitals are doing much better in getting people vaccinated.

Melting_Harps 6y ago
> I'm not confident hospitals are doing much better in getting people vaccinated. They're not, Ralph's (SoCal's version of Kroger/Safeway neighborhood grocery stores) just had a lot of their vaccines pulled in LA County [0], which is perhaps the worst place hit by COVID in the US by case-death ratio, and many people who were scheduled for thier vaccine (elderly who are the reason ICUs are at 0% capacity) were just told 'oh well, better luck next time.' This entire situation is a shit show, and shows why the need to reform it exists. I agree on the mixed feelings; for all the entrepreneur porn thrown around here and the constant mental masturbation about how 'fail fast and iterate' type strategies are the corner stone of any successful business amongst the HN Silicon Valley crowds you cant have it both ways and wag your finger when things go wrong--they always do in the beginning with growing pains. I think a lot of these same people that shake their heads and stroke their chins in disapproval from the sidelines equate their situation working for an established FAANG (who were once a startup long before they ever got there) think they know what its like to go into uncharted territory and break ground and actually disrupt something we all know is broken in the US: The Medical Industrial Complex and its affiliate modes of operation. To be honest, I think the issue was the Philadelphia health department not doing it's due diligence and only giving them a platform without any legally binding contractual oblations and standards (not rules) and benchmarks to operate under and adhere to... like not not taing the vaccine home with you and giving it to your GF! But even having someone from the Heath department at least oversee and have a minor assistant operations role or something would have gone a long way when they gave away a portion of their (incredibly scarce) vaccine in the middle of a f'ing pandemic! > By January 9th, Doroshin had a deal with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Mayor Jim Kenney's administration. The city never signed a formal contract with Philly Fighting Covid or gave the organization any money, but did provide its unofficial sanction, and publicity. Most importantly, the city turned over part of its vaccine allotment to the group, and helped them find recipients by sharing lists of residents who were newly eligible for the vaccine, based on the city's own prioritization scheme. Entrepreneurs, but founders in particular, are overly optimistic (borderline delusional at times, and I speak from first hand experience) and are incredibly risk prone people by nature and often take on way more than they can deliver under even ideal conditions, so under a pandemic which you see has a death toll that increases on an hourly/daily basis and represents an affected family(s) and is the reason why a lot of the country has been locked down and suffering a damn near economic depression now for almost a year, its clear to see this is far from ideal conditions so some basic contingencies should have been made. With that said, I agree, the numbers by comparison to the mass vaccination at Coor's Stadium by UChealth, who only did a 1000 in a weekenm, are not bad because even a small state like CO is struggling to match those numbers and they were the first place to report cases of that 2nd strain and recently opened up it's businesses and schools, thus increasing the need more than anyone else. They're suppoed to do 10,000 this weekend, and with better weather in Denver they might just get it, but it that took a massive coordinated effort and way larger budget, team and infrastructure. Shoutout to the Philly Fighting Covid team for this undertaking under immense pressure! And a personal thanks for trying to take some pressure off the over worked physicians and nurses who when this is all said and done will have a long road to recovery in physical but specifically mental health. And while I'm sure people here (and elsewhere) are going to point fingers and judge, just ask yourself: what has been your biggest achievement during this pandemic, especially for those you work remotely from the comfort of your home and doing the supposed 2-3hours of 'actual work a day' a mid tier SWE does in a day. A sentiment that so many here agreed they do most days all while getting paid obscene salaries. I'm sure as hell it wasn't as impressive as mass vaccinations under immense pressure. The way some people are viewing this you'd think they were Theranos 2.0, when people are in fact getting the vaccine. 0: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-28/ralphs-cancels-covid-19-vaccine-appointments https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-28/ralphs-c... PS: I don't care if you downvote me as I don't care about your fake points, but GP raised some valid points and in the time I typed all this out with citations he was dropped to the bottom and downvoted into oblivion with no rebuttal. That's a really pathetic thing to do at HN in what is supposed to be at its CORE a hub for entrepreneurs to chat and discuss ideas, not obscure people's opinion who you don't agree with.
- ipsum2 6y ago
  Well stated, and I appreciate your response. People expect that there are detailed plans and the proper way of rolling out the vaccine, but having seen the massive failure of coordinated response in 2020, this is obviously not true. This scrappy response by the team may be flawed and lacked oversight, but its better than waiting around and watching hospitals throw away unused vaccines.
filleduchaos 6y ago
> On the other hand, he did get a decent amount (the website claims 6,000 people over 5 days) of people vaccinated For one, the vaccine requires two doses to achieve anything approaching an acceptable level of immunity. So all those people have effectively not been vaccinated yet, and I'm not confident that the organisation will follow up on all their second doses properly (considering that they're already screwing up appointments for elderly people's first shots). For another, given everything we know (including outright urging to ignore best medical practices) I wouldn't necessarily take as a given that the shots administered were all done so correctly and safely. I suppose it's a question of the staff's ethics vs the CEO's...everything.

by ipsum2 6y ago

Melting_Harps 6y ago

> I'm not confident hospitals are doing much better in getting people vaccinated. They're not, Ralph's (SoCal's version of Kroger/Safeway neighborhood grocery stores) just had a lot of their vaccines pulled in LA County [0], which is perhaps the worst place hit by COVID in the US by case-death ratio, and many people who were scheduled for thier vaccine (elderly who are the reason ICUs are at 0% capacity) were just told 'oh well, better luck next time.' This entire situation is a shit show, and shows why the need to reform it exists. I agree on the mixed feelings; for all the entrepreneur porn thrown around here and the constant mental masturbation about how 'fail fast and iterate' type strategies are the corner stone of any successful business amongst the HN Silicon Valley crowds you cant have it both ways and wag your finger when things go wrong--they always do in the beginning with growing pains. I think a lot of these same people that shake their heads and stroke their chins in disapproval from the sidelines equate their situation working for an established FAANG (who were once a startup long before they ever got there) think they know what its like to go into uncharted territory and break ground and actually disrupt something we all know is broken in the US: The Medical Industrial Complex and its affiliate modes of operation. To be honest, I think the issue was the Philadelphia health department not doing it's due diligence and only giving them a platform without any legally binding contractual oblations and standards (not rules) and benchmarks to operate under and adhere to... like not not taing the vaccine home with you and giving it to your GF! But even having someone from the Heath department at least oversee and have a minor assistant operations role or something would have gone a long way when they gave away a portion of their (incredibly scarce) vaccine in the middle of a f'ing pandemic! > By January 9th, Doroshin had a deal with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and Mayor Jim Kenney's administration. The city never signed a formal contract with Philly Fighting Covid or gave the organization any money, but did provide its unofficial sanction, and publicity. Most importantly, the city turned over part of its vaccine allotment to the group, and helped them find recipients by sharing lists of residents who were newly eligible for the vaccine, based on the city's own prioritization scheme. Entrepreneurs, but founders in particular, are overly optimistic (borderline delusional at times, and I speak from first hand experience) and are incredibly risk prone people by nature and often take on way more than they can deliver under even ideal conditions, so under a pandemic which you see has a death toll that increases on an hourly/daily basis and represents an affected family(s) and is the reason why a lot of the country has been locked down and suffering a damn near economic depression now for almost a year, its clear to see this is far from ideal conditions so some basic contingencies should have been made. With that said, I agree, the numbers by comparison to the mass vaccination at Coor's Stadium by UChealth, who only did a 1000 in a weekenm, are not bad because even a small state like CO is struggling to match those numbers and they were the first place to report cases of that 2nd strain and recently opened up it's businesses and schools, thus increasing the need more than anyone else. They're suppoed to do 10,000 this weekend, and with better weather in Denver they might just get it, but it that took a massive coordinated effort and way larger budget, team and infrastructure. Shoutout to the Philly Fighting Covid team for this undertaking under immense pressure! And a personal thanks for trying to take some pressure off the over worked physicians and nurses who when this is all said and done will have a long road to recovery in physical but specifically mental health. And while I'm sure people here (and elsewhere) are going to point fingers and judge, just ask yourself: what has been your biggest achievement during this pandemic, especially for those you work remotely from the comfort of your home and doing the supposed 2-3hours of 'actual work a day' a mid tier SWE does in a day. A sentiment that so many here agreed they do most days all while getting paid obscene salaries. I'm sure as hell it wasn't as impressive as mass vaccinations under immense pressure. The way some people are viewing this you'd think they were Theranos 2.0, when people are in fact getting the vaccine. 0: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-28/ralphs-cancels-covid-19-vaccine-appointments https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-28/ralphs-c... PS: I don't care if you downvote me as I don't care about your fake points, but GP raised some valid points and in the time I typed all this out with citations he was dropped to the bottom and downvoted into oblivion with no rebuttal. That's a really pathetic thing to do at HN in what is supposed to be at its CORE a hub for entrepreneurs to chat and discuss ideas, not obscure people's opinion who you don't agree with.

ipsum2 6y ago
Well stated, and I appreciate your response. People expect that there are detailed plans and the proper way of rolling out the vaccine, but having seen the massive failure of coordinated response in 2020, this is obviously not true. This scrappy response by the team may be flawed and lacked oversight, but its better than waiting around and watching hospitals throw away unused vaccines.

filleduchaos 6y ago

> On the other hand, he did get a decent amount (the website claims 6,000 people over 5 days) of people vaccinated For one, the vaccine requires two doses to achieve anything approaching an acceptable level of immunity. So all those people have effectively not been vaccinated yet, and I'm not confident that the organisation will follow up on all their second doses properly (considering that they're already screwing up appointments for elderly people's first shots). For another, given everything we know (including outright urging to ignore best medical practices) I wouldn't necessarily take as a given that the shots administered were all done so correctly and safely. I suppose it's a question of the staff's ethics vs the CEO's...everything.