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The Coronavirus Crisis
Why Did Philadelphia Allow a 22-Year-Old to Run Its Covid Vaccine Sites?
In a city with 4 major healthcare systems, how did an inexperienced startup convince officials that it should administer and run covid vaccination sites throughout the city?
From the beginning, Philly Fighting Covid had ambitious goals. The startup, founded by Andrei Doroshin, started out by making face shields using 3D printers. Before the first vaccines were even announced, the company wanted to be involved. Doroshin, 22-years-old, is a Drexel graduate student in psychology with no healthcare background or experience. Back in October, he gathered 15 of the nonprofit’s staff members to lay out his plan for vaccinating the city. His plans hinged on getting celebrities like Meek Mill, a Philly native, to broadcast themselves being inoculated to get locals in the city to do the same. So, how did an inexperienced startup with a founder who had no background in healthcare end up getting approval from the city to run the vaccination sites?
In November 2020, the startup made a presentation to the Philadelphia City Council outlining their plans for vaccinating the city. They laid out a budget of $2.7 million and made claims of…
