Eventually, she worked with a software developer to create an online application called ReadiConsent, which was presented in 2018 by the National Adult and Influenza Immunization Summit, a coalition affiliated with the C.D.C. improve the use of vaccines. The product attracted so much attention that in January 2020 they convened a consortium of 30 states interested in purchasing ReadiConsent.
According to the cease-and-desist letter, on March 13 – the day President Donald J. Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency – Ms. Tate reached out to some officials they found at the C.D.C. knew. to tell them that they are updating their platform and that they have a software company with extensive government experience ready to scale it up for a “national rollout”.
The next month, she presented PrepMod to the American Immunization Registry Association, which was exploring various software platforms for possible use in a mass vaccination campaign, and C.D.C. Officials at meetings where Deloitte was present. The meetings included “a slide presentation and screenshots of PrepMod with detailed explanations of current and planned functions,” the letter says.
Soon after, the agency inquired about the cost. “It was very clear that they were very, very excited about what I was presenting to them, and they told me that they had nothing else,” Ms. Tate said in the interview.
In May the C.D.C. Deloitte won a $ 15.9 million contract – about $ 600,000 more than Ms. Tate asked for. Since then, the company has awarded an additional $ 28 million for VAMS.
After the first Deloitte contract was awarded, Ms. Tate reached out to the company to partner with her. Instead, she complained, they tried to hire her to “work on the exact software and project she had already developed and built”. However, due to the offer, she had to sign a “release” that was embedded in a nondisclosure agreement, and she declined.
Their attorney, Howard A. Newman, said they were still awaiting a substantive government response; Under federal law, they must wait six months before filing a lawsuit. Ms. Tate said she’s trying to keep going, “I’m very busy helping people save lives. That’s my main goal right now and this process material – we’ll see how that plays out.”
