Last evening there was the Zoom Pow Wow of Endorsement for the Chester County Democrats. To say I am confused by some of the outcome would be an understatement. I also heard it was a Zoom that needs a replay but that will never happen, right?
All sorts of things about people seemingly trying to get back what had been removed from and candidates who didn’t exactly shine as Republicans, trying to become candidates as Democrats and seeking endorsement no less? The Chesco Dems released a very distilled and watery press release much like their Republican counterparts, but suffice it to say I heard from both sides of the aisle nothing to write home about, right?
I am conflicted about Marian Moskowitz. She is self made, which I respect, but I question sometimes WHY she serves in public office? And a big part of WHY I am troubled is the whole Advaite of it all.. I wrote about Advaite (check out their press releases) again yesterday in conjunction with a new court case that is kind of adjacent related, right?
Advaite is a Chester County COVID thing. And it seems along the lines of bad like Philly Fighting COVID was, doesn’t it? And it cost Chester County a big black eye and lots of money which affects taxpayers, residents, etc., right?
The National Whistleblowers Center has an interesting piece on their website that made me think about this again this morning:
A recent scandal in Philadelphia involving a local startup embroiled in a public health fiasco showcases how times of crisis can allow fraud to rear its ugly head. As financial and public pressures to succeed create more opportunities for fraud to be committed, similar cases of mismanagement and ineptitude may surface across the country.
Philly Fighting COVID began as startup using 3-D printing to create face-shields for students at Drexel University. It then became a non-profit aiding the city of Philadelphia with testing, working with partner organizations to provide community testing.
Upon news of vaccine approvals in the fall, Philly Fighting COVID’s CEO, 22-year-old graduate student Andrei Doroshin, began to impress himself upon city officials. With claims of vaccinating between 500,000 to 1.5 million people through five mass-vaccination sites, Doroshin and his startup seemingly appeared right when Philadelphia needed them.
The startup secured a deal with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health after pitching its services to the Philadelphia City Council in November 2020. While it did not sign an official contract, it received a portion of Philadelphia’s vaccine allotment. However, problems began to arise shortly thereafter.
An investigation by WHYY, a Philadelphia public media organization, revealed that in December, Philly Fighting COVID reorganized as a for-profit company, Vax Populi. According to WHYY, Philly Fighting COVID officials maintained that “a for-profit entity was needed to bill insurance companies for reimbursements from the vaccine, a plainly untrue claim in a city with numerous nonprofit health care providers.”
Following that, in January, Philly Fighting COVID closed down all testing events, leaving community members effectively in the dust as Doroshin told partnered groups that testing was no longer important….
Communities, strapped for resources made acute by the pandemic, can be targeted by those looking to profit off of rapid spurts of funds, “get-rich-quick” schemes and assorted administrative chaos that arises in crises. While it may not explicitly be fraud, it is clear that Philly Fighting COVID aimed to profit off of COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Philadelphia.
Similar schemes may be happening across the country. With more cities desperate to vaccinate their citizens, misplaced trust in organizations like Philly Fighting COVID can lead to fraudulent activity, negligence, and delinquency of duties. With opportunities for fraud on the rise, those brave individuals who speak out like Lipinsky or Flamholtz could be critical in identifying fraudulent actors and rooting them out from high-profile positions.
So Advaite. Remember the glowing press release in 2020? Here:
Then came the black eye and many other articles like:
Philadelphia Inquirer: Chester County spent $13 million on coronavirus antibody tests. Then it quietly shelved the program. by Marie McCullough and William Bender
Updated Sep 17, 2020
There are more articles on the topic. Until recently, I only read a couple of them. But then I started to read more about Advaite. And I began to wonder. Then came the whys without answers.
Marian Moskowitz was newish to her commissionership when Advaite happened, right? But where I am troubled is, WHY did she push so hard for this? Personal relationships? Glory? Trying to do right by big campaign donors to many politicians from Chester County and others including former Gov. Tom Wolf?
There is obviously some sort of a relationship because it seems to show up in emails released in a Right to Know over Advaite. Here to follow are some and I quietly suggest if Marian Moskowitz in running again and has been endorsed by the Chester County Democrats which seem as problematic right now as their Montgomery County PA counterparts, she needs to talk about this and explain her exact role, right? Just like she needs to explain why she has seemingly turned a blind eye to her constituency affected by pipelines, right?
Maybe just maybe in the end Advaite will be chalked up to a “mistake”, except this is a “mistake” that cost Chester County millions, didn’t it? And continues to grow legs seemingly? A reader sent me a comment about the company recently:
Advaite really is a company. Innovative, therapeutic and healthcare solutions.
BUT the word “advaita” is totally ..something else
https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5234/advaita
This one is worth reading more of.
What is Advaita? – Definition from Yogapedia
https://www.yogapedia.com › definition › advaita
Advaita is a Sanskrit word that translates as “not two” or “no second.” This gives the idea that the inner Self, or Atman, is the same as the Absolute Reality, that is Brahman.
The meaning of ADVAITA is Vedanta nondualism that denies the separateness of any aspect of reality from the impersonal oneness of Brahman.
Marian, come on now, you got to office as a Wolf gal, correct? Well now it’s time to stand on your own and not be a wheeler dealer of connections. That all has it’s place in this world, but Chester County needs and deserves answers. It can’t just be a continual inter-political party swirling mess of Democrat in-fighting and it can’t be the Hatfields and McCoys of it all, Democrats vs. Republicans. If you wish to continue to lead, lead by example: transparency, full disclosure, etc. How you act can also affect Josh Maxwell, who really does his best literally every day. So if you don’t provide clarity for the sake of the residents of Chester County, do it for your running mate.
Thanks for stopping by today to my ponder fest.
