City ends partnership with Philly Fighting COVID

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) – The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has announced it will no longer partner with Philly Fighting COVID to provide tests or vaccines.

The health department cites the change in Philly Fighting COVID’s corporate status as the reason for ending the partnership.

“We were recently notified of a change in PFC’s corporate status that took place without our knowledge, from non-profit to for-profit. As part of this change, PFC has updated its data privacy policy to allow the organization to sell data collected through the pre-registration site of PFC, ”said Jame Garrow, a health department spokesperson.

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Garrow called the changes disturbing.

The city has not been notified of the sale of this data. But it is extremely disturbing that PFC made these changes without consulting the city. As a result of these concerns and the unexpected shutdown of testing activities by PFC. decided to stop providing vaccines to PFC, ”added Garrow.

The health department is currently developing plans to transfer future vaccine allocations to other providers.

It is also planning new clinics to ensure that people vaccinated at the PFC clinics at the Convention Center can receive their second dose.

The City of Philadelphia strongly recommends that people who wish to express their interest in vaccination do so on the city portal at https://www.phila.gov/vaccineinterest.

Philadelphia Department of Public Health statement:

“The Philadelphia Department of Public Health will no longer partner with Philly Fighting COVID to provide immediate testing or vaccine delivery. We were recently notified of a change in PFC’s corporate status that occurred without our knowledge, from non -profit to for-profit. As part of this change, PFC has updated its data privacy policy to allow the organization to sell data collected through PFC’s pre-registration site. City council has not been notified of the sale of this data But for PFC it is extremely troubling to have made these changes without consulting the city.As a result of these concerns, along with PFC’s unexpected shutdown of testing activities, the health department has decided to stop providing vaccines to PFC.

The health department is currently developing plans to transfer future vaccine assignments to other providers, and is planning new clinics to ensure that people vaccinated at PFC clinics at the Convention Center can receive their second dose. The health department will contact each of these people to make appointments.

To make sure the health department is aware of any Philadelphia resident interested in receiving vaccine, the city strongly recommends that people who wish to express their interest in vaccination do so on the city’s portal at https: //www.phila. gov / vaccine interest. By registering through this website, the health department can contact you to schedule an appointment when you are eligible and vaccine is available. ”

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