Meet Dave Oates

Share This Article

Sed ut perspiciatis unde.

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dave Oates a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dave, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?

Reversing the unwarranted attacks on a medical doctor by public officials.

My client, Hasan Gokal, MD, a Houston-based emergency room physician, found himself forced to choose between saving lives and following poor bureaucratic guidance nearly a year ago. He chose the former and was vilified globally by political operatives and civil servants who were hell-bent on preserving their jobs and fostering their ambitions.

Background

Recruited to join the Harris County Public Health Department in mid-2020, Dr. Gokal led the first vaccination clinic for healthcare workers and first responders on December 29 of that year. He and his team set up the operations at 6:00 a.m. that morning and operated nonstop until 7:00 p.m. At approximately 6:45 p.m., as Dr. Gokal’s staff began preparations to close the clinic, one lone healthcare employee drove up to receive the Moderna vaccine, requiring the team to open another vial that contained 11 doses. Once a vial is punctured, doctors must administer all doses within six hours before the vaccines expire.

Dr. Gokal realized that he had two options. The first and easiest was to place the open file back in the container box and send it back to the Harris County Public Health offices as instructed, where the remaining vaccines in the open vial would get thrown out by morning after expiring. The second was to find qualified individuals, 65 or old with co-morbidities, to administer the doses. Though tired and without any formal process or procedures to use as guidelines, Dr. Gokal informed his operations counterpart at Harris County Public Health that he would find folks to receive the life-saving vaccine.

He then spent the next six hours contacting friends and family to see if any knew of 10 individuals who met the criteria to get the Moderna vaccine. Dr. Gokal found qualified recipients and went about administering the doses, in some cases driving to their homes to do so.

Dr. Gokal’s good deeds became a matter of public concern when Harris County Public Health’s HR Department terminated him a week later, claiming that he “stole” the Moderna vaccine vial and turned over the case to the Harris County District Attorney’s office. Two weeks later and without warning, the County DA issued a press release announcing that they formally charged Dr. Gokal with a one-count misdemeanor theft offense that could carry a one-year prison term if convicted. He found out about the filing when local television news crews showed up at his front door asking him for a statement.

The story went global in less than two hours. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/doctor-accused-stealing-coronavirus-vaccines-23370698

Goals

I received a frantic text message from Dr. Gokal’s brother moments after the television crews arrived with very little prior knowledge and zero coordination with his legal team. I quickly got on a conference call with them and criminal defense attorney Paul Doyle. We had an erroneous charge at issue and local news “Live at 4” broadcasts were on the air. I felt it imperative not to allow the Harris County DA’s office’s false accusations to go unchecked and set the narrative.

I had one primary goal – to reset the narrative that clearly and unequivocally showed Dr. Gokal as the hero in this story and restore his reputation. My secondary goal was to make it difficult for District Attorney Ogg to secure a successful conviction.

Tactics

Messaging
I drafted a statement for Mr. Doyle’s attribution in under 10 minutes after our conference call and received approval five minutes later. This quote served as the general messaging that became the strategic foundation for all PR activities over the next six months:

“Dr. Gokal is a dedicated public servant who ensured that COVID-19 vaccine dosages that would have otherwise expired went into the arms of people who met the criteria for receiving it. Harris County would have preferred Dr. Gokal to let the vaccines go to waste and are attempting to disparage this man’s reputation in the process to support this policy. We look forward to our day in court to right this wrong.”

Media outreach
I successfully secured all local media on-air between 4 and 5 p.m. CST read our statement on air before ending their broadcast. I then went about ensuring all other local, regional, national, and international organizations covering the story also received and utilized it in their reports. From there, we scheduled a formal virtual press conference via Zoom for 11 a.m. CST the next day. Mr. Doyle and I and spent considerable time prepping statements and practicing Q&A sessions that evening to be ready.

More than 30 news organizations from around the globe attended the one-hour virtual conference the next day and ran our story. Within 24 hours, I went from having a damning report with no retort to establishing an equal footing of the narrative for Dr. Gokal.

Harris County Criminal Court Judge Franklin Bynum dismisses the cases by the following Monday.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/26/judge-tosses-case-against-doctor-accused-of-stealing-covid-vaccine/

We were done, or so we thought. That afternoon, at an unrelated press conference, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg stated that she would send the case to a Grand Jury. Ms. Ogg then delayed doing so for five months, extending the pain and anguish to Dr. Gokal and his family.

Evaluation and Outcome

In response, and with consensus from Mr. Doyle, we devised a strategy to offer Dr. Gokal to local, regional, and national news organizations to tell his story. We intended to generate public support for his situation and pressure Ms. Ogg to end her pursuit of a criminal charge. I blanketed traditional and non-traditional media with more than 40 news hits in the greater Houston area and the United States with stories that generated an avalanche of unsolicited letters, online petitions, and monetary contributions to Dr. Gokal’s defense fund. Some notable news coverages include:

• New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/us/houston-doctor-fired-covid-vaccine.html
• ABC The View: https://abcnews.go.com/theview/video/dr-hasan-gokal-fired-vaccines-expected-76090750
• Medium: https://gen.medium.com/punished-for-vaccinating-people-63a14d29c714
• NBC Houston: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/02/17/dont-criminalize-a-physician-doctor-prosecutors-accused-of-stealing-vaccines-tells-his-side-of-the-story/

In doing so, we made the environment very much in Dr. Gokal’s favor. In late June 2021, a Harris County Grand Jury declined to indict him. Dr. Gokal is also getting set to write his book and is taking pre-orders at Kickstarter.com

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Dave possesses more than 25 years of strategic public relations experience dealing with a wide array of adverse public events. Starting as a U.S. Navy Public Affairs Officer and later as a Corporate Chief Marketing Officer and Non-Profit President, he excels in expertly addressing a myriad of crises spans military, government, corporate, charity, and start-up environments. His Crisis Communications experiences, including handling employee and executive misconduct, cybersecurity attacks, product recalls, mass layoffs, large-scale accidents, criminal investigations, and civil litigation matters.

A sought-after speaker, Dave served as a lecturing professor teaching the semester-long PR Media & Messaging program to upper-division undergraduates at San Diego State University. He actively gives back to others through his role as Past President of the Rotary Club of San Diego, the fourth largest service club in the world. Dave previously served on leadership roles that raised tens of thousands of dollars for organizations that include the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Operation Homefront, Free to Thrive, and others.

Dave authored three Amazon e-Books and co-produced two LinkedIn Learning courses, Crisis Communication for HR, and HR Communication in Today’s Fluid Workplace. He is an accredited PR specialist (APR) who received his MBA from San Diego State University in 2004 and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in 1991.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I understand that my reputation is only as good as my most recent conduct. In other words, it’s perishable.

That means I must bring my “A” game to every client, partner, referral, and generally everyone I meet. When I err through my own shortcomings or miscues, I try to make amends soon after.

Only through this disciplined approach do I feel I can build and maintain my reputation as a reliable expert that will help organizations and individuals get through a crisis.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I’m in the Trusted Advisor business, and that means I grow clients primarily through referrals. The way I do that is not just building relationships with people who have the ear of owners, executives and prominent individuals, but I also must be a resource for them and seek ways to be able to provide commerce to those who are doing the same for me.

That “Giver” mentality is essential. If all you do is expect folks to provide you business first before you do the same for them, you’ll starve. If you do good work and strive to be of value to others before yourself, you’ll never go hungry!