Philadelphia COVID hero and State Rep. Tarik Khan subject of short film

Tarik Khan doesn’t get much sleep. The nurse practitioner-turned-House rep became a hometown hero distributing COVID-19 vaccines to some 900 homebound Philadelphians in the last two years before those shots — which he calls “angel doses” — expired. Getting home at 1 a.m. after driving across the city, he would chip away at his dissertation each night. The next day, he’d do it all over again.

Khan, who recently graduated with his Ph.D. from Penn, is still stretched thin; pulling 16-hour workdays shuttling between Harrisburg and his Manayunk/Roxborough home. There’s little time for anything else — dating included. He’s too busy knocking on doors to check in on his neighbors, writing bills, and still working as a nurse on some days.

“That sense of urgency never stopped,” said Khan, who was elected to the Pennsylvania State House last May after knocking on 10,000 doors. As a Philly native who started his career in acting, Khan is comfortable talking to people, whether as a frontline nurse delivering a shot or now as a politician checking in on his neighbors.

“I actually kept that [dissertation] schedule of working on policy for 30 minutes,” said Khan to The Inquirer. “I have close to three dozen bills, either that I wrote or was lead sponsor on in the House.” That is a lot, especially for someone who’s in their first term.

Toronto-based filmmaker Sami Khan (no relation) focuses on this nonstop work ethic in the documentary short, Angel Dose, which screened in Philadelphia last week.

The stakes of delivering vaccines were high, but the director said he thinks about the film as “a comedy about the pandemic, because Tarik is a funny guy.” There’s even footage of his acting days.

Sami Khan learned of the nurse from The Inquirer’s coverage of the Angel Dose program in 2021. The camera crew followed him for 15 months as he rushed to deliver COVID shots and began his campaign for state office.

As he gave all his time and energy to this effort, his gray cat, Theodore, was dying. “It was very tough,” Khan said. “I wanted to stay home with him, but there were leftover vaccinations and I had a list of people who really needed that medicine.” The film shows Khan at his parents’ Northeast Philadelphia home, where he buried the cat in the Islamic tradition, facing Mecca.

“Tarik is a man with very few attachments,” said the director. “There is this really deep, emotional relationship that Tarik had with this other living thing. I’m still really moved by that sacrifice … Thousands of people are dying every day, and I can do something to help them. But doing that, I might not see my best friend.”

Khan still misses Theodore, but he also admits that his all-encompassing work schedule isn’t great for any pet to handle. He hopes to adopt another cat in the future. For now, he wants to knock on more doors. Not to ask for votes, but just to chat.

“Being in a home, I feel like it’s sort of getting back to the roots of nursing,” said Khan. “It’s carried on as I’m going into people’s homes and knocking on the doors and asking about the issues that they care about.”

“Angel Dose” is available to stream for free on WHYY for the next 30 days.