The City of Brotherly Love ended its contract with Philly Fighting COVID after three weeks, citing the organization’s decision to change its corporate status to a for-profit entity.
Philadelphia said the company, which previously ran the city’s largest vaccine site, stopped offering testing and updated its privacy policy so that it could sell the data of people who signed up for vaccinations on its website, according to NBC News.
The city announced its “unique public/private partnership” with the organization on Jan. 8 and encouraged residents “to begin the registration process for a vaccine” by signing up through PFC’s website, according to NBC 10.
Together, Philadelphia and PFC ran a mass vaccination site at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. PFC also held a number of pop-up testing sites across the city throughout the summer but began abruptly backing out of testing agreements after obtaining the vaccination partnership — sometimes canceling as late as a half-hour before testing was supposed to begin, according to NPR affiliate WHYY.
The city said that it’s not aware any user data was sold but said PFC’s decision to make those changes without letting the health department know was “extremely troubling.”
“The City has not been notified of any of these data having been sold. But for PFC to have made these changes without discussion with the City is extremely troubling,” a spokesperson told NBC 10. “As a result of these concerns, along with PFC’s unexpected stoppage of testing operations, the Health Department has decided to stop providing vaccine to PFC.”
Philadelphia Department of Public Health Director James Garrow told NBC News that PFC changed its status to for-profit back in December but only told the city that it was “considering” making the change in January of this year.
PFC updated its privacy policy on Monday — which now includes bold red text that reads, “THE COMPANY WILL NOT SELL DATA TO ANY PARTIES.”
PFC CEO Andrei Doroshin also released a statement on the company’s website in order to “set the record straight” on its data policy and why the company decided to become a for-profit organization.
“We understand that there have been legitimate inquiries into our privacy policies. There was language in our privacy policy that was problematic and as soon as we became aware of it, we removed it,” Doroshin wrote. “We never have and never would sell, share, or disseminate any data we collected as it would be in violation of HIPAA rules.”
“We are aware that some were taken aback when we pivoted from testing to vaccines and we sincerely apologize for any miscommunications,” the letter continued. “As the vaccine became available for distribution, we did not have enough resources to do both and made a choice to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible, as we believe that is what will help end this pandemic.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Philadelphia Public Health and Philly Fighting COVID for further comment.
