#and 'legally it is now ok to go to work while being positive to covid'

[machidielontheway]

tiredof having to play sleuth 3D chess to be sure to avoid people who you learn have covid and don't fucking stay home.

just learn that a fraquaintance has it and is still going to perform, maskless, in a musical. i guess because it's not a level to where she'd have a double. but i hope for the other performers that they at least KNOW, and too bad for the audience i guess.

and the way i learned it was "yeah she's upset that she has to perform like this, sick and with breathing problems" like dude ? maybe there's something a bit more upsetting about this situation ? I didn't say anything because i was still processing it. maybe after i would also not have said anything because i'd fear being the killjoy and i'm a coward (and i'm already #tagged as the one who Masks Too Much)

if she's at choir on tuesday i'm going back home. and sending a mail to choir "oh i don't have the right to mask for security [but other people can come sick -not covid- with a mask and not sing to not miss the weekly rehearsal] but she had covid two days ago and suddenly she's fine ?"

fuck off

[purplesurveys]

1129

[created by: youvebeensurved - LiveJournal]

How often do you get fountain drinks from a gas station? I’ve actually never tried getting a drink from one of those fountains. I find them nasty, and the fact that gas stations aren’t the most hygienic of places certainly doesn’t help their case.

If you get online and look at graphics, what website(s) do you go to? I never find myself looking for graphics. The closest thing I search are vector icons, and for those I have an extension on Chrome that lets me look for icons to place on slides and such.

Who would you say your favorite celebrity is? At the moment it would be Rosamund Pike, but my all-time favorite would be Beyoncé.

Have you ever slept in your car? If so, explain. Sure, mostly when I took naps in between classes. There were also a few times I had late nights out and didn’t have a place to crash at, so I’d sleep in the car for the night before heading home in the morning.

If you were forced to murder one of your parents, which one would it be? This is a horrible question.

What song are you currently obsessed with? Find Me Here - Hayley Williams.

Explain your last run in with the police: Never happened.

Who was the last friend you hung out with, and what did you guys do? In terms of a physical get-together, I was with Angela, Hans, Pia, Kyelle, Al, Gab, and Sam and we had dinner and drinks at this gastropub that announced its impending permanent closure by the end of February. Virtually, I hung out with Andi, Peter, Carmel, Rita, Robin, Mik, and Elis to have a Jeopardy game night over Zoom.

What time do you usually go to bed and wake up? On weekdays I try to turn in anywhere between 9–11 PM and wake up by 6:30. On weekends, I try to stay up until midnight at the earliest, but I’m trying to make it a habit to stay up until like 2–3 AM just so I can catch up on my hobbies and shows. I wake up anywhere between 5–7 AM.

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? What's stopping you? Lawyer, which is a route I seriously considered for a few years. I get extremely tense in arguments though so I doubt I’d be the best fit for that kind of career.

Do you have a friend that's in a horrible situation right now? Explain. Yeah, my college batchmate (who’s now also my co-worker) Aimee tested positive for COVID this week after being in and out of a fever over the last two weeks.

What was the last store you were in, and what did you buy? I suddenly needed plastic bags while I was packing groceries at the office the other week, so I went to the nearby convenience store to check if they had any. They didn’t, so I left without buying anything.

Who was the last person you texted, and what did this text say? I was texting some media friends to tell them some shoes we had ordered for them to try out are going to be delivered to their address within the day.

What is the reason for the last time you cried? A show I had been watching had an emotional scene.

Who is your favorite character in your favorite movie? Joanna, of course, mainly because that’s the character Audrey Hepburn plays.

What color did you last paint your nails? I can’t remember the color I chose the last time I had my nails painted 79472394348 years ago.

It's 112 degrees out today, describe your attire: A very thin tank top with airy shorts.

Do you have any friends that are currently in jail? Explain their situation. Not friends but I can think of a couple of relatives who’ve gotten ‘in conflict’ with the law. I won’t get into their cases but for both of them, it was because they got tricked by their respective abusive bosses, hence the quote marks.

Do you tend to take long or short surveys? I like taking those whose lengths are right in the middle - anywhere between 35-80 questions. Shorter ones look boring and I find the longer ones too time-consuming.

What do you currently desire? I changed my mind about La Creperie and will be going to Ramen Nagi instead since I just remembered they currently have a truffle ramen thing that’s only going to be around for a limited time, and I want to get my hands on it before they take it off the menu.

How often do you honk your horn? Depends on how stupid the people I’m driving with are on a given day.

For what reason were you last at a park? We don’t have too many parks here so there’s little opportunity to stay at one. I remember seeing one with Gab when we were at BGC a little over a year ago, but we only walked through it since it was part of the route we were taking to get to our actual destination.

What junk food can you never pass up? Salted egg chips and pizza.

If you're a girl, what is your favorite brand of feminine hygiene products? If you're a boy, what is your favorite brand of condoms? I don’t have a favorite.

Where was the last place you went on a walk to? Just around the neighborhood. I also wanted to make this morning’s route with Cooper a little longer so he could walk more, so we went to parts of the village we don’t normally reach.

How are you feeling today? I’m content :) It’s the weekend so I’m not too tense like I normally would be on weekdays. I also have plans to go out later today so I’m looking forward to that.

Do you ever make your own surveys? Never tried because I know I wouldn’t be able to come up with new and interesting questions.

How flexible are you? Not very. I can’t even reach my toes when I do stretches.

What is your favorite class? Any history elective. I also like biology, anthropology, and some aspects of political science.

What is your boyfriend's name? I don’t have one.

What is your favorite drink? Non-alcoholic, cold water. Alcoholic, Long Island Iced Tea for mixed drinks, and tequila.

Who is your best friend? Angela.

What time is it? 11:20 AM.

What is your middle name? My second name is Isabelle, but I’m not sharing my legal middle name.

What 3 websites do you visit daily? YouTube, Google Suite, and Twitter.

Where do you work? At home, haha. But under normal circumstances I’d be working in an office somewhere in Metro Manila.

What is your favorite band? Paramore.

How do you feel about abortion? Personally not a fan of the procedure for myself, but I am as pro-choice as it gets.

Do you want any kids? Very much so.

Have you ever microwaved soap? Nah, but I know what happens to it from watching YouTube videos hahaha. It’s so fun to see it gradually expand and become a pretty lil cloud.

Are there any new movies that you want to see? I Care A Lot, but I feel sooooooooo lazy about watching new movies. Idk if I’ll ever get around to it.

How many places have you lived? I’d say around five in total, including the house I currently reside in. I’ve lived in my parents’ apartment in Manila, then we briefly moved in with my dad’s parents, and then I spent most of my childhood in a duplex living with my mom’s side (and got to live in both houses), until we finally settled here when I was 10.

Do you have any health issues? Yeah, the main one I have to live with is scoliosis.

Are you texting anyone? Nope. And I don’t really text anymore, either. Most of my conversations take place on Messenger or Viber.

What do you drive? A Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback.

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? Sure, both male and female ones.

Are you drinking or eating anything? Nope but I am starting to feel a bit hungry.

What color is your shirt? Yellow with some grey text.

Do you drink? Like...alcohol? Sure. I have the occasional soju night.

What year do/did you graduate? I graduated high school in 2016, and college in 2020.

Do you play any sports? Table tennis, though it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to play. I got to take it as a PE elective on my last sem, but my time with it got cut off because of COVID :(

Do you pop your fingers? Yeah, I just cracked my knuckles a few minutes ago.

What is your shoe size? I can wear a size 6 or 7.

Have you ever had a UTI? Apparently I’ve had one, but all I got from it was a persisting high fever. I didn’t actually have any difficulties or felt pain in my urinary tract, though of course I felt scared to pee during that time because I thought it would hurt lol.

What was the last thing you baked? Cookies. A lifetime ago, since I don’t normally bake.

When was the last time you showered? Yesterday afternoon when I was finally able to clock out of work.

Would you rather go to the dentist or the doctor? Dentist. I actually find the procedures soothing. There’s a whole lot of issues that can be unpacked when you visit doctors, so I’m kinda scared of that.

Have you ever been in love? Yes. I miss the feeling and being able to act on it, but I’m liking being with myself too.

How do you feel about public speaking? I’m ok with it for the most part. I know I can speak well and generally have a good hold of my thoughts, so I don’t mind if I have to do it unless I have to talk about something I’m greatly unfamiliar with, like insurance or economics lmao. The latter situation is the only time I’d feel unprepared or scared of public speaking.

Do you see anything green? Yeah, since we have artificial plant accents on the coffee table.

What shoes do you usually wear? Sneakers or running shoes.

Do you take any birth control? Nope.

Who is the last person you talked to? My sister; I just asked her to turn the volume down on the TV.

Are there any fast food restaurants that you refuse to eat at? Just Tokyo Tokyo. I can take or leave Burger King but for the most part I find their burgers too plain.

Do you recycle? Whenever I can, yeah.

Do you know what you want to major in in college? I wanted to take up journalism. I suppose I don’t regret it, since I ended up wanting to be in a field that’s close enough to it anyway and I don’t feel like the skills I learned went to waste.

Have you ever snuck anyone in your room? Nah, I always let my mom know if I’m letting someone over since she doesn’t knock and would find out anyway.

Who was the last person in your bed besides you? Gabie.

Have you ever been in the hospital? Other than when I was born, yeah, at least once.

What's the last movie you watched? I watched Midsommar with Nina and some cousins last Christmas lol. We unknowingly downloaded the Director’s Cut, which we found out wasn’t as good as the main version since they added cheesy scenes to it, which ruined the suspenseful mood of the movie.

What's your favorite fruit? Avocado.

What do your bathroom walls look like? The bottom half has coral-ish tiles, while the top half is just a plain white wall. In the downstairs bathroom the setup is the same, but instead of coral tiles we have light blue wall tiles instead on the bottom half.

What do you spend most of your money on? At the moment, most of the money that I do take out of my account is the money I give to my parents every couple of weeks to help out with the bills. The next main thing I spend on is food, because I always have cravings I need satisfied haha.

Do you have any weird obsessions? Reading about serial killers and unsolved crimes isn’t really considered ‘weird’ anymore since a lot of other people have taken up the interest. But that’s probably the most out-there ~obsession that I have.

Do you bite your nails? I do but not obsessively.

What's the last color you dyed your hair? I’ve never tried dyeing my hair yet.

How do you feel about mustaches? Not my personal preference, but you do you.

Is there anyone that you really want to see in concert? Beyonceeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[newstfionline]

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Canada Is Relieved at Biden’s Win (NYT) On a snowy evening in December 2016, a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada held a rare farewell state dinner for the departing vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. It was like a tearful goodbye between two old friends. “We are more like family. That’s the way the vast majority of Americans feel about Canada and Canadians,” Mr. Biden said to a hall packed with politicians in Ottawa. “The friendship between us is absolutely critical to the United States.” He ended with a toast: “Vive le Canada. Because we need you very, very badly.” After four years of surprise tariffs, stinging insults and threats from President Trump, a giddy jubilation and sense of deep relief spread across Canada on Saturday, with the news that Mr. Biden had won the presidency. Many Canadians hope to return to the status of cherished sibling to the United States, and that the president-elect’s personal connection to Canada, and that of his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, will help heal the wounds.

States cite smooth election (AP) The 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities, according to state officials and election experts, a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud being leveled by President Donald Trump following his defeat. Election experts said the large increase in advance voting—107 million people voting early in person and by mail—helped take pressure off Election Day operations. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation. “The 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable considering all the challenges,” said Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, which works closely with officials on election administration. Following Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, Trump has sought to discredit the integrity of the election and argued without evidence that the results will be overturned. Republican lawmakers have said the president should be allowed to launch legal challenges, though many of those lawsuits have already been turned away by judges and those that remain do not include evidence of problems that would change the outcome of the race.

Future of business travel unclear as virus upends work life (AP) For the lucrative business travel industry, Brian Contreras represents its worst fears. A partner account executive at a U.S. tech firm, Contreras was used to traveling frequently for his company. But nine months into the pandemic, he and thousands of others are working from home and dialing into video conferences instead of boarding planes. Contreras manages his North American accounts from Sacramento, California and doesn’t expect to travel for work until the middle of next year. Even then, he’s not sure how much he will need to. “Maybe it’s just the acceptance of the new normal. I have all of the resources necessary to be on the calls, all of the communicative devices to make sure I can do my job,” he said. “There’s an element of face-to-face that’s necessary, but I would be OK without it.” That trend could spell big trouble for hotels, airlines, convention centers and other industries that rely so heavily on business travelers like Contreras. Work travel represented 21% of the $8.9 trillion spent on global travel and tourism in 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Amazon, which told it employees to stop traveling in March, says it has saved nearly $1 billion in travel expenses so far this year. The online shopping giant, with more than 1.1 million employees, is the second-largest employer in the U.S. At Southwest Airlines, CEO Gary Kelly said while overall passenger revenue is down 70%, business travel—normally more than one-third of Southwest’s traffic—is off 90%. U.S. hotels relied on business travel for around half their revenue in 2019, or closer to 60% in big cities like Washington, according to Cindy Estis Green, the CEO of hospitality data firm Kalibri Labs.

Final weeks of historic hurricane season bring new storms (AP) Just when you thought it should be safe to go back to the water, the record-setting tropics are going crazy. Again. Tropical Storm Eta is parked off the western coast of Cuba, dumping rain. When it finally moves again, computer models and human forecasters are befuddled about where it will go and how strong it will be. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Theta—which formed overnight and broke a record as the 29th named Atlantic storm of the season—is chugging east toward Europe on the cusp of hurricane status. The last time there were two named storms churning at the same time this late in the year was in December 1887, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. But wait there’s more. A tropical wave moving across the Atlantic somehow survived the mid-November winds that usually decapitate storms. The system now has a 70% chance of becoming the 30th named storm. That’s Iota on your already filled scorecard. If it forms, it is heading generally toward the same region of Central America that was hit by Eta. Never before have three named storms been twirling at the same time this late in the year, Klotzbach said. Hurricane records go back to 1851, but before the satellite era, some storms were likely missed.

Religious Persecution Is Worsening Worldwide (CT) Dictators are the worst persecutors of believers. This perhaps uncontroversial finding was verified for the first time in the Pew Research Center’s 11th annual study surveying restrictions on freedom of religion in 198 nations. The median level of government violations reached an all-time high in 2018, as 56 nations (28%) suffer “high” or “very high” levels of official restriction. The number of nations suffering “high” or “very high” levels of social hostilities toward religion dropped slightly to 53 (27%). Considered together, 40 percent of the world faces significant hindrance in worshiping God freely. And the trend continues to be negative. Since 2007, when Pew began its groundbreaking survey, the median level of government restrictions has risen 65 percent. The level for social hostilities has doubled.

Critics, protesters call removal of Peruvian president a legislative coup (Washington Post) The little-known head of Peru’s Congress took the helm of the South American nation Tuesday amid a public outcry over the surprise removal of the country’s popular president, Martín Vizcarra. Vizcarra’s ouster late Monday and the inauguration of interim president Manuel Merino amounted to a return of the political chaos that has long plagued Peru, where nearly every president since 1990 has resigned, been indicted or been jailed amid clouds of corruption. One former president killed himself. Yet at a time when the Andean nation is confronting one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks, Vizcarra’s ouster, based on still-unproven bribery allegations, appeared to be fundamentally different. Critics called it a congressional coup staged by Machiavellian legislators desperate to halt his anti-corruption and political reform campaigns, which took aim at their pocketbooks and threatened to end many of their political careers. Under Vizcarra, Peru adopted laws that took on festering malfeasance within the 130-member legislature, where 68 lawmakers are now under investigation or indictment for alleged crimes ranging from money laundering to murder. Members of the current Congress have been prohibited from seeking reelection, and anyone with active charges is barred from running. Critics now fear that Merino—who previously sought to turn the military against Vizcarra and attempted an earlier removal on different grounds in September—will seek to lift those rules, allowing a compromised political class to preserve itself and setting up a new period of instability in this nation of 32 million.

Generation COVID (Foreign Policy) A report from the British school inspection agency found that children had suffered from being outside the regular school system during lockdown, with some younger children regressing from being potty-trained back to diapers and older children showing reduced reading stamina. The chief inspector for schools found that the children experiencing the worst effects were those whose parents’ employment did not allow for flexible or at-home working.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tests positive for Covid-19 (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Monday that he has tested positive for coronavirus infection and will be working in self-isolation while being treated. “There are no lucky people in the world for whom Covid-19 does not pose a threat,” Zelenskiy said on Twitter. “However, I feel good. I promise to isolate myself and I continue to work.” Zelenskiy became president in 2019 as a political neophyte, previously known as an actor and comedian. He became popular in the country for a TV sitcom, “Servant of the People,” in which he played the role of a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after making a rant about corruption that goes viral. He handily defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko. Ukraine’s coronavirus infections began surging in late summer and have put the country’s underpaid doctors and underequipped hospitals under severe pressure.

Nagorno-Karabakh: Turkey wins the war? (Foreign Policy/Eurointelligence) Russia may have secured a peace deal to end a six-week conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, but Turkey has won the war. Ankara threw its political support behind Azerbaijan and employed Turkish cutting-edge drones and military expertise to allow Azerbaijan to roll over Armenian positions in the difficult mountain area under dispute. The conflict is not new, and occasional fighting has been going on there since 1994, but this time it is a decisive victory. This victory will boost Erdogan’s image as a strongman with geopolitical weight, and helps him put a foot into the South Caucasus. Hard power impresses former Soviet countries.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers resign en masse (AP) Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers said Wednesday that they were resigning en masse following a move by the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s government to disqualify four of their fellow pro-democracy legislators. The 15 lawmakers announced the move in a news conference Wednesday, hours after the Hong Kong government said it was disqualifying the four legislators. The disqualifications came after China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which held meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, passed a resolution stating that those who support Hong Kong’s independence or refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over the city, or threaten national security or ask external forces to interfere in the city’s affairs, should be disqualified. Beijing has in recent months moved to clamp down on opposition voices in Hong Kong with the imposition of a national security law, after months of anti-government protests last year rocked the city. A mass resignation by the pro-democracy camp would leave Hong Kong’s legislature with only pro-Beijing lawmakers. The pro-Beijing camp already makes up a majority of the city’s legislature.

Iran sanctions continue (Foreign Policy) The Trump administration doesn’t intend to give up its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran just because it lost an election. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on six companies and four people accused of supplying components to Iran Communication Industries, a company run by the Iranian military that is already under U.S. and EU sanctions. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the United States would continue to take action against those that support Iran’s “militarization and proliferation efforts.”

Frantic search after medicines vanish from Lebanon shelves (AP) She is a nurse at a Beirut hospital, and still Rita Harb can’t find her grandfather’s heart drugs. She has searched pharmacies up and down Lebanon, called friends abroad. Not even her connections with doctors could secure the drugs. Unlike many amid Lebanon’s financial crash, she can afford them—they just aren’t there. To get by, her 85-year-old grandfather is substituting his medicine with more pills of a smaller concentration to reach his dosage. That too could run out soon. Drugs for everything from diabetes and blood pressure to anti-depressants and fever pills used in COVID-19 treatment have disappeared from shelves around Lebanon. Officials and pharmacists say the shortage was exacerbated by panic buying and hoarding after the Central Bank governor said that with foreign reserves running low, the government won’t be able to keep up subsidies, including on drugs. That announcement “caused a storm, an earthquake,” said Ghassan al-Amin, head of the pharmacist syndicate. Lebanese now scour the country and beyond for crucial medications. The elderly ask around religious charities and aid groups. Family members plead on social media or travel to neighboring Syria. Expats are sending in donations. It’s the newest stage in the economic collapse of this country of 5 million, once a regional hub for banking, real estate and medical services. More than half the population has been pushed into poverty and people’s savings have lost value. Public debt is crippling, and the local currency plunged, losing nearly 80% of its value. The health sector is buckling under the financial strain and coronavirus pandemic.

‘Countdown to catastrophe’ in Yemen as U.N. warns of famine—again (Reuters) Millions of men, women and children in war-torn Yemen are facing famine—again, top United Nations officials warned on Wednesday as they appealed for more money to prevent it—again. “We are on a countdown right now to a catastrophe,” U.N. food chief David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council. “We have been here before ... We did almost the same dog-and-pony show. We sounded the alarm then.” The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the people in need of help. “If we choose to look away, there’s no doubt in my mind Yemen will be plunged into a devastating famine within a few short months,” Beasley told the 15-member council. In late 2017, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned that Yemen was then facing “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims”. “We prevented famine two years ago,” Lowcock told the Security Council on Wednesday. “More money for the aid operation is the quickest and most efficient way to support famine prevention efforts right now.”

[kennethmjoyner]

LawPay Looks to Expand Beyond Payments, While Staying True To Core Mission, New CEO Says In Interview

Last month, AffiniPay, parent of the popular legal payments platform LawPay, named Dru Armstrong as its new CEO. With degrees in both law and business from the University of Chicago, Armstrong was previously CEO of Grace Hill, a company that provides software for owners and operators of real estate properties.

Prior to joining Grace Hill as chief product officer, Armstrong was a VP of operations at The Gores Group and a project leader at The Boston Consulting Group in the consumer and technology practice areas. She also co-founded and was CEO of Lily Pod, a smart baby monitor company.

AffiniPay was founded in 2005 by Amy Porter, who remained its CEO until last year, when she became executive chairman and Tom West took over as CEO. West left last May. In February 2020, private equity firm TA Associates acquired AffiniPay in an auction.

Last week, Armstrong joined me on a Zoom call to discuss her new role and her plans for the company. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, which I have edited for clarity, concision and continuity.

AMBROGI: I would love to hear, to begin with, what it was that attracted you to this position — why you wanted to join the company.

ARMSTRONG: What was most intriguing to me about it is it felt a little bit like a return to home. I had begun my career in the legal space. My dad had a small law firm. He had started his career as a litigator. He was on the Attica commission. He was a professor at UCLA law school, which is how I came to be raised in California. He ended up going into private practice.

So I had grown up in the household of an attorney and I had gone off to undergrad pretty certain I was going to follow in his footsteps to be a federal prosecutor. When I was in undergrad, I had worked as a paralegal for the district attorney’s office, on the Dennis Kozlowski prosecution and also then as a legal assistant for a mob defense attorney in Brooklyn.

Then I went off to the University of Chicago law school. I pretty quickly realized that the University of Chicago is a very serious law school, and that the world was a big place, and before I committed to being a prosecutor or a litigator, I wanted to get more experience. I worked at Dewey Ballantine, then I worked at O’Melveny & Myers, and then I also worked at BCG (the Boston Consulting Group), and ended up falling in love with a different kind of client service, in management consulting. But I had grown up in awe of attorneys who were so capable of solving very real-world issues for their clients.

When Amy and I talked about AffiniPay, what really resonated for me was, I’m a big believer that innovation happens when we can solve real-world problems for real people. The idea of providing such powerful technology, that’s really simple and easy to use, that helps them manage the financial side of their firm, to give them hours back in the day to take care of their clients. I saw my dad struggle in a really meaningful way with the business side of running a law firm. I was rereading the Thomson Reuters 2020 State of the Small Law Firm report. It felt in some ways like not a lot had changed, though obviously technology has gotten better.

I always think that as CEO, you need to be kind of chief enthusiasm officer, right, and you’ve got to be the one who is most excited about understanding our clients and the problems that we’re solving. And I just felt like what an amazing 15-year history this company has in solving a core challenge of how attorneys get paid and thought about what else could we do for those same law firms. So it felt, on one hand, like it was similar in terms of the technology side and having worked in technology my whole career, but then on the flip side, also like a problem set for a group of folks that really resonated with me.

AMBROGI: Other than your experience in and familiarity with the legal world, how does your career background prepare you for this position? What strengths do you bring to this position based on the work you’ve done in your career?

ARMSTRONG: The last company that I ran was similar in that they had invented the category in the real estate technology space and they had really understood the multifamily client. What I was able to do with the team and with our financial partners was say, “How can that translate into us having permission to solve another set of challenges?” In five years, we went from being a pure single-product company into a full platform business, that was really built around understanding our customers, understanding their needs and understanding what we had permission to solve as one of their longstanding partners.

I know there’s a lot of discussion about disruption from technology and outsiders coming in. I’m pretty passionate about companies like Grace Hill or AffiniPay that have earned the right to serve a market and a customer base, and then get to say, “OK, now that we’ve grown with you for 10 or 15 years, what else can we do?” So at Grace Hill, we went from having one core product to a full six products, but that were all around not just solving the training need, but solving a full team performance need. That was a big struggle for our industry.

I think here a lot of that applies. I think we know that, when you look at the data from small firms, they very much struggle with gaining new customers and then with managing their firm and getting more hours in their day back to serve their clients. Usually if you become an attorney, it’s because you have a calling to serve your clients and help solve their problems, not because you have a desire to be a firm administrator per se. Given the amazing brand that Amy and team have built, given the high growth that they’ve been able to earn, the high net promoter scores, I feel like there’s a lot more that we could do. When you look at the core problem set, I think we’ve earned the right to continue to explore what other products or services we could bring in to help give hours back in the day to our clients to serve their clients.

AMBROGI: On that point of the growth that Amy and the team have built, I think the press release announcing your hire said that the company is on track to process more than $13 billion in payments in 2021. I read that the company’s revenue grew 75% from 2017 to 2019, and that it finished 2020 with about $80.5 million in revenue on pace. Are those numbers all right? Is that an accurate statement of the revenue and the growth and the payments you’re processing right now?

ARMSTRONG: Yes, it is. I would say 2021 has been an exceptional year for us. Part of that is being driven by our customers recognizing that technology can really benefit their businesses. I love seeing the adoption of digital payment solutions in our market. I think it’s a front runner to law firms embracing more technology down the road.

AMBROGI: I understand that you just came into this job, but how much of that growth do you think was driven by the circumstances of the last 16 or 18 months – the pandemic and everything else we’ve been through?

ARMSTRONG: The company has grown organically north of 30% consistently year over year. While there was some acceleration due to the pandemic, and there were some folks that were probably fence-sitters that moved over to the technology side of the fence, which we love, it’s more about the fundamentals, having the right payments platform where you have the trust of your clients, you’re able to solve the core IOLTA challenge in the business, and it’s very easy to use, both for our clients as well as their clients. I think it’s not just because we had a COVID bump, but it’s very much the fact that over 15 years, we built the right technology and earned the trust of the industry. So we were well-positioned to gain some customers during the pandemic, but I think it speaks more to the really good fundamentals of the business.

AMBROGI: The press release quoted Amy saying that the company is poised for its next chapter of growth and expansion, and you just alluded to the potential for new products and services. Do you have any thoughts on how the company could expand, what that next chapter looks like?

ARMSTRONG: We are very focused on helping our customers drive financial wellbeing and manage risk in their business.  We have a payment solution that is IOLTA compliant and that is very easy to use and administer. We’re looking at everything that could wrap around that, that could help our clients further have that financial stability and manage risk into their business. We’re open to a number of different avenues. The other thing that we think a lot about is that at our heart, we’re serving small law firms. We want to make sure that we’re not giving them too much technology or technology that’s too complex. The last thing that we’d want to do is burden them, right, with too many wizzy woos and buttons and all of that. So I think the nice thing is that we are very cognizant of who our customer is and what their need set is. That’s going to be our north star as we think about what the next chapter looks like.

AMBROGI: Does that mean, even as you grow, you stay focused on the core product, or do you expand that core product into more of a platform as you’ve talked about before?

ARMSTRONG: We’re going to look at expanding out of just payments. But I think we’re also going to think about — in the last company I ran, when we announced an acquisition or a new product, I would hate for our customers to be confused. If the customer says, which sometimes happens, “Wow. I wouldn’t have thought about that, but that really makes sense,” it’s not that it has to be completely obvious. Hopefully we have some ability to see ahead and read some tea leaves. But on the flip side, I do like to have the gut check. AffiniPay is their core installed payments platform. We work with the rest of their tech stack. We work with no tech stack. So as we think about expanding, I’d always want to, at the end of the day, make sense to our customers, because, at the end of the day, it should work better together with any new products or services that we add.

AMBROGI: LawPay is one part of AffiniPay, which is in a number of verticals. Do you see expanding into additional verticals as part of the company’s growth plan?

ARMSTRONG: Yes. We have been very successful in identifying other professional services markets where there’s a lot of similarities. We’ve had really great success launching our CPACharge brand and the growth trajectory for that brand is outpacing LawPay in its early days. We also came out of the association space — that’s where the name AffiniPay came. Obviously, we’re committed to those markets, and I think we’re open to others.

I would say my first priority, though, is really understanding, in the markets that we’re in and the customers that we serve, how do we continue to be the best in breed, and then how do we expand and add additional products or services that, frankly, make our payments platform even better. I would say the first order of business for us is more expansion into the markets that we’re already in, though obviously were keeping our eyes peeled on other complementary markets, and would move in where it made sense and where it felt highly complementary.

AMBROGI: In legal, does that include expanding up market into larger firms? I know the company acquired ClientPay last year. Is that part of how you grow within the legal vertical?

ARMSTRONG: We’ve had tremendous success – and I think it really speaks to the strength of the platform – since we’ve done that acquisition in winning new large firm accounts. One of the nice things about having a payments platform is that, from the beginning, we designed it to play well with others. We are not looking to build a walled garden. We are much more about playing well within the ecosystem. So, I would imagine even if we add products, there may be partners that have more robust, more built-out products that our clients will graduate to, or certain segments will say we actually need all of the software because our business is that complex, that large. So, our view is, we absolutely want to continue the ClientPay history of serving the enterprise segment. It’s an area where we’ve continued to invest and will continue to invest. The nice thing that we’ve found is that our platform, given how legal focused it is, it fits very well for those clients, especially given the investments we’ve made in integrations to able to fit with the rest of their technology stack.

AMBROGI: You talk about wanting to best in breed. One thing that has happened since the founding of LawPay is that the market has become much more competitive for electronic payment solutions in the legal area. For a long time, LawPay almost had the market to itself. Now, over the last few years, we’ve seen a number of other companies spring up. How does that change the equation for LawPay? How do you respond to that greater competitiveness in the market?

ARMSTRONG: It’s interesting. I went through this at my last company, and one of the things we used to say is that people wanting to come into your space and go after your opportunity is usually a validation that you’re playing in the right part of the market. If you’re the only one, you’re like, Where’s the party? Look, we have 98% gross retention, we have an NPS (net promoter score) of 72 with our customers. Payments is, on one hand, software, but on the other hand, is a very different type of software product. I’ll admit I’m learning it, but the great thing is we have so many payments experts here at AffiniPay.

So, while we’ve seen the rise in competition, usually we see it more in the form of folks who want to add it to complement their software versus really wanting to build a fulsome payments offering. That’s allowed us to continue to differentiate and really be the market leader. I think ClientPay was our only kind-of point solution direct competitor. So far, it’s been great, right, we’ve really not had many challenges. If anything, it’s opened our eyes to the appetite that the market has for us to potentially bring in some software into our offering. We’re still figuring out what that is, but we’re going to use our clients’ pain points and needs as our north star.

I’m usually not concerned about what competition is doing and very concerned about us having a unique mission in the market that really is around serving our clients.

AMBROGI: You talked earlier about walled gardens and a lot of those others on the market are set up that way. They’re meant to work with, as you said, a specific product, not to be product neutral.

ARMSTRONG: One of the things that makes our payments platform really unique is that about half our clients integrate it with another software stack and half of them don’t integrate it with anything and they use it fully standalone. Even for those that do integrate it, they’re still running, on average, 40 to sometimes 50% of their payments on our standalone payments platform. That’s because they’re embedding it in places like their website. So, what I’ve seen in this market so far – and Amy and the team here have done an amazing job educating me – is a lot of our attorneys are looking for technology that directly solves their problems, but they’re still running a small business, so they may not need a very large, multi-application platform. When you have something like LawPay, where it perfectly fits in where you want it to be, standalone or with other technology, you build a really nice loyalty, in terms of our platform.

AMBROGI: How much of the company’s overall business is the legal portion?

ARMSTRONG: It’s like 85%. We’re still very focused on the legal market. I would say we think about it every day, all day long. It’s very critical for us to make sure that we don’t lose sight of what our attorneys want from us.

AMBROGI: I know that Amy stepped into a higher role a couple of years ago. Will her role change now that you’ve come aboard, or does she stay as executive chairman?

ARMSTRONG: Look, I am so blessed to have Amy as such an active founder and executive chairman of the board. The plan is for her to absolutely continue in that role. We work incredibly closely together and she’s very much the heart and soul of AffiniPay. You’ve got to give her so much credit for having such a clear vision and building this business over the past 15 years. Myself and the entire team here feel very honored that she chose to trust us with her baby and to invite us to dream bigger and put together a plan for a new and bigger chapter.

I’m very fortunate that she’s still so generous with her time and that she’s still so involved. On the flip side, I think she’s excited for myself and Christian and Meg and the rest of the executive team here, along with our new board members, to all collectively define what this new chapter is going to look like, because I think the sky’s the limit for this business.

AMBROGI: Are you going to be looking for any outside investment going forward?

ARMSTRONG: You don’t get a better software investor than TA. The great thing about TA is they are incredibly supportive. We are a very strong platform investment for them out of their payments practice. So, at this point, there’s no plan to raise outside funds. If anything, they’re very happy to give the team time to stay the course and invest more in the business, which I think is great news for our team, it’s great news for our clients. We’re in a really sweet spot in terms of having really nice runway in front of us in terms of being able to not only dream about the next chapter, but go execute on it.

AMBROGI: In the few minutes we have left, anything else you wanted to say?

ARMSTRONG: I’m just very excited to be joining. I think, there’s so much opportunity for this business and I’m going to be very focused on putting the right team together and making sure that we don’t lose sight of our customers that we’re serving. Hopefully, a year from now, you’ll be even more impressed by what were able to do.

AMBROGI: Sounds good. I’ll check back with you then.

from Law and Politics https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2021/08/lawpay-looks-to-expand-beyond-payments-while-staying-true-to-core-mission-new-ceo-says-in-interview.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[babyspacebatclone]

I am taking this as a sign that I deserve to not-so-humble brag about work today, because for most of the day I effortlessly applied this philosophy and yes I deserve to celebrate it!

Under the cut, of course. I’m still polite.

Ok, my day. Oh, Stars Explode, my day…

I work, of course, at a day care. Last week, one of our (fully vaccinated) teachers in the Toddler room got a positive COVID test, which shut down the room for a week and prevented all affected children/staff and their family members from coming until it reopened and negative tests were provided.

(get your booster when you can, people! delta is not a joke!)

This made for a quiet week for the rest of us, because this represented a full half of the center all told. Reopened today, Wednesday, so I knew to expect craziness today.

*broken laugher* I was naïve.

I have my morning routine down to where I get out the door in 15 minutes from final wake-up, and have a breakfast bar at my 10 minute break. On the other hand, I have an hour and a half of alarms to get me prepared for actually getting out of bed.

Which was good, because an hour before that “final bed warning” point the owner of my Day Care center calls me.

*small sob*

At the moment, there are two sister centers on opposite ends of town under our owners. I work at the sane one, and the other has been struggling due to non-COVID health issues affecting the director.

So the owner’s wife, the former director of that center and now Executive Director of the centers has been covering. Let’s just say she’s 95% of the total brains of their relationship. Her husband think’s is 40/60 in his favor.

Imagine how fun it is to work for him. Fortunately, my Center (the sane one) had a competent Director who doesn’t see employees as malfunctioning robots.

Owner’s wife has tested positive for COVID. Owner is in “quarantine” (we wish), but at least is staying out of the rooms.

Then half the staff at the other center, on top of this, are sick for various reasons.

*deep breath*

So I, the closest thing to an experienced “extra” staff left in this mess, am being asked to head over to help the grand total of three staff left on site (closest thing relating to “extra,” I really ain’t, licensing staff ratios be damned, my room needs two staff to function…).

An hour early, as mentioned half a day ago above.

Anyway, the morning actually goes really well. This center’s version of “problem children” in the preschool room are the equivalent of “moderately decent” kids in my room (baseline: they immediately take a break when told, instead of having to be carried to the appropriate area and sat with).

Eventually I move over to their Toddler room because ratio (to explain: x kids per staff, as legally required by my state). By my standards these Toddlers are angels, so it’s all good!

(why does the “sane” center have the problem kids? well, I have two theories. one is that the other center is the “showcase” center, and with the owner’s wife on-site is actually listened to when the kids consistently try to break teachers. The other is this center can’t handle problem kids, so when the owner still wants them paying they get shipped to us, because our staff actually have backbones.)

(I favor the latter because I’ve literally watched it happen multiple times. I hate the owner. I know for a fact the owner also doesn’t listen to my director about kids she doesn’t want to say, so it’s both, just mostly the latter)

Anyway…

Day was going good! Transitioning to art, sponge painting, the kids all start to sit nicely, when..

“Who threw up?”

It is immediately obvious who threw up.

And now we get to “solutions, not problems.” I’ve visited this center before, so I know/recognize half of the kids, but barely.

Nevertheless, I immediately swoop into art duties, rotating out kids as spots free up and washing hands at the extra sink while the bathroom is occupied with biohazard clean up.

It’s not even conscious. My lead teacher needs to focus on the sick kid, my job is to keep the room good until that’s done.

Which takes an hour, because the single parent doesn’t answer calls from either the lead or the owner’s wife (from home) as we try ti figure out how to get this now lethargic, miserable toddler home.

So I start reading stories. When they get antsy, the Lead turns on the cd player for me and I lead dance (since outside time is now out of the question).

Just keep the kids moving, happy, focus ok what’s working so the people who have to can focus on what’s not.

And I feel good.

If you’ve read my other rants, you know I’ve gotten PTSD from another caregiving-based job. One of my legit, based on acute incidents and chronic gaslighting from that company, is “Not feeling in control in the caregiving situation.”

Not today. Today I have enough solutions to fill the time before nap, even lunch, and we’ll get through this.

😊

The afternoon broke me, though, but I expected that. An hour and a half alone in the baby room (having returned to my usual center, so my own babies even), with four babies between seven weeks and seven months.

Right when everyone is going to want a bottle.

Lots of crying. Another trigger for mw…

Ah, well, can’t win them all.

[yaminerua]

Y’all I am seriously not having a good time rn

And like yeah literally no-one is because this year is a fucking disaster but god..... I feel like I’m getting backed onto the edge of a cliff by stress...

I’m sorry I’ve been slow with commissions and barely got any new art done but man I just don’t have the emotional or physical energy to...

This year has been one year after another of stressful or upsetting things even just in my personal life alone and that’s not even INCLUDING the state of the world and everything else going on...

Like god my papa died this year and I knew he was going to eventually because cancer is a fucking Bitch but it happened faster than anyone thought only a few days before the UK’s lockdown was finally put in place. So I couldn’t go to the funeral. But my aunt had said even before we knew we wouldn’t be allowed that if my brother and I showed up there’d be a war. Because of all the Stupid Family Nonsense that has just been swirling and bubbling and frothing over the years. My gran is torn between wanting me to visit cos I’d be good company and hating my guts because of all the Shit that’s happened.

I dunno how to abridge it... it’s mostly them rewriting history or just straight up misinterpreting the ways or reasons things happened and pinning it all on my dad, his family, and my and my brother instead of the actual people who fucked everything up, those being the crooked lawyers who fucked us over 20 years ago, my mum after her meltdown changed her into a horrible person and her family who tried to gaslight, kidnap, blackmail and manipulate us all the fuckin way.

We were terrified of them because they tried to kidnap us and keep us from dad, tried to lie to us and change the way events unfolded by telling us completely false versions of events despite the fact we were present for most of them and they absolutely did not play out the way they wanted us to believe. Tried to brainwash us against my dad and his family and then turned around and tried to say that him and his family were trying to brainwash us against THEM.

So much distress and upset happened whenever we visited and other things happened that were just plain terrifying fear-for-our-lives shit that we just. Didn’t feel safe going over anymore. But they refuse to accept that. And think we just cut them off and abandoned them (which is rich since actually the cutting off happened from their end first but, again, they loooove to rewrite history).

So all of that mess is being continuously dug up to guilt trip us and make us feel bad because our cousins hate us, my aunt Despises us, and my gran wobbles in between of wanting to see us and also despising us too.

I made an effort to rebuild the bridges that had been burnt because I wanted my papa to know I didn’t hate him and that I wanted him to see me again and know that an effort was being made to patch things up because I knew that was what he wanted. And he never deserved to have been cut off from us. It was the women in the family who were being the assholes and he was just for the most part caught up in it.

He was so happy to see me and happy to think the family was beginning to come together again. Unfortunately his daughter and her sons do not respect his wishes. And my mum flip flops because she’s still affected by what happened to her more than 15 years ago. Her head got so messed up by all the legal stress and the brainwashing from her mum and sister that she just. Doesn’t remember what was real or what was false anymore. But also won’t ever listen to our side because it’s Wrong By Default.

So we ‘abandoned’ her in her eyes and she will Always try to Remind us. of that and all the other bullshit she wants us to believe.

My phone anxiety is directly related to her and Now I have to talk to her everyday because my papa’s death unfortunately opened up the communications that I’d forced closed for years to protect my own mental health.

But this year has just been ‘fuck your mental health’ so. naturally that wish gets kicked out the window and the phone can’t be refused anymore.

Sometimes the calls are ok. She talks about herself for 2 hours and then that’s it. other times it becomes a rant, an attempt to convince, an attempt to deliberately make me feel awful and Oh Boy is she Good At That. And I can’t hang up on her because that pisses her off More and then she’ll write a horrible email to my brother where she tries to pull the same shit on him and I refuse to have him have to deal with that because for SOME FUCKIN REASON she only pulls this shit on the phone with me and NEVER DOES THIS TO HIM.

God. Why.

Anyway that’s just one thing that’s persistent and continuous. And I make myself sadder about it watching old home videos we found from 20 years ago. One of them I’d never seen was the literal day I was born and it.... it shook me so much I broke down watching it. It’s like watching good days, innocent days when all seemed well, knowing the future and how wretched and awful and deeply traumatising the years ahead are for that little kid who has no idea what’s awaiting them.

Cue lockdown and my dad and brother and I are looking after my granny. She had a stroke 2 years ago, hit her head on a cabinet and had constant UTIs for months and then had another stroke last year and as a result her mind is foggier than it used to be and her mobility isn’t what it was so she requires a lot of constant watch and care.

None of this is her fault, but I’m just not built for the long-run in a carer position. The first year put me into a meltdown, and I had another worse one last year and I was dreading if there would be one this year because I’d felt so on-edge and burnt out.

And then lockdown happened and the chances to get away for a bit of respite to recharge my batteries went out the window. Dad had no help to balance his work calls which sometimes went on all day, and granny. Other than me, but for reasons I have yet to finally have an answer for, my body has just been having problem after problem that leaves me drained and/or in pain and less able to do the physical help I was doing before. Doing the cooking and washing up to take it off dad, and getting up to keep an eye on granny or help her with personal care like I used to.

I’ve had this goddamn pain that doctors haven’t been able to find a diagnosis for since April now and it’s just become more and more limiting and I’m on a waiting list to get referred and god only knows when that will actually end up happening.

Doctors suggested it might have been stress that brought it on and the response to that is usually to reduce stressors but like. My life is the stressor so idk how to fix that. I can’t get away because guilt and stress over dad having to handle it all would follow me anywhere I went anyway even if i COULD go somewhere else for a break.

My uncles aren’t very helpful either. One makes excuses not to come and help and the other WILL go on a throwing out spree if he was to come in and I cannot trust him to not throw out important sentimental stuff without a second thought as to whether it was wanted because he’s done that before.

Plus that one has had his own health scares and even had a bit of a mental health crisis in the middle of the year which was probably brought on by the isolation and distancing stuff lockdown brought about.

One major contributor to the daily stress was the nagging worry that there was gonna be a Major Event this year that hadn’t happened yet. There’ve been major events that put granny is hospital without fail every year for the past... 4 but maybe even 5 years. It felt inevitable. But also terrifying because hospital felt like the worst place for her to go this year with all the virus stuff happening...

We had carers coming in to help with her but they weren’t really that... great. Wore their masks under their noses, didn’t self isolate when they got sick before they could get tests and lo and behold, despite the fact I hadn’t been out anywhere and the only contact I had beyond my own family were the carers, I got a cold which thankfully really was Just a Cold.

Not wanting to risk granny even getting a cold I stuck to my room and only came out to use the toilet or grab food/drink and all times I left my room I wore a mask and used sanitiser before I even left the room so I wouldn’t put anything on any surfaces. I was careful.

But either I wasn’t careful enough, or whoever gave ME the cold passed it to dad as well. Because then he got sick. And he didn’t have the option to distance himself from granny. Because I was still sick too and my brother Doesn’t do the personal care. So he wore a mask and tried to look after her while coughing and sneezing his guts out.

We thought we were gonna be ok. But then it happened. She got the cold anyway. We think it was a different carer who gave her it because this one was Really Hacking Up A Lung with her. Mask on still but, idk, the hands on care means you’re up real close and even a mask doesn’t stop everything. Plus this woman would pull her mask down to speak sometimes it was....?????

So granny got a cough and cold and we prayed it wasn’t covid and thankfully it doesn’t seem to have been. She’d had a cold in february so we thought ok if we just keep looking after her and help her fight it off we’ll be ok.

September 11th, one day before her birthday, at half 7 in the morning dad woke me up yelling for me to grab the phone so he could call an ambulance.

She was slumped against him in the top floor landing, face drooping, unresponsive and making deep loud groans that sounded honestly like a cow’s moo. It was an awful sound.

It then progressed to a weird rattly, wet breath. Like you’re trying to suck the last water out through a straw in a cup with just ice in it. Like a rattly snore but from the throat and not the nose.

Ambulance came and they said her blood pressure was high and still rising. She was absolutely unresponsive and cold and clammy to touch. The only response they could get was pinching her ear and she let out a loud pained groan.

They took her away and it was later just assumed to be a chest infection so she was put on antibiotics.

I think just. The accumulated stress of everything else just. Hit me like a train. It’s horrible to be relieved to get a break because someone’s gone into hospital because it felt like there was no other way you were going to get a break. But I felt so burnt out it happened anyway and I feel awful for it. my body was in so much pain and my head and everything was just exhausted from stress and exhaustion in general.

She wasn’t in very long though and I think before we knew it was a chest infection related collapse we’d all assumed it was a third stroke and thought she was going to be in for as long as she had the last few times to rehabilitate.

I honestly hate what ended up happening next.

The stress of it all just blew up and I had several days of frequent uncontrollable panic attack-type meltdowns.

I just. I lost complete control of myself. Slamming my head against the wall and floor and counters, scratching my arms, pulling my hair out and just.... screaming so loudly my throat was so so raw. This happened every day. I got into a negatively spiralling process of overthinking and overworrying and just melted down into a fit of stress

The third day of this, dad called the ambulance on me,which made me feel so so so much worse for wasting their time on something I wish I’d had enough mental control of myself to just. stop from happening....

they sat with me for nearly 2 hours and once I was able to even speak relatively coherently at all I just cried about everything from childhood trauma to everything else that’s all combined to fuck me up.

The lady called the mental health folks because she felt I definitely needed to see someone for some support and put me on with one of the women on the phone but that woman was so incredibly unhelpful and passive aggressive even the ambulance lady was shocked and apologised for that person’s behaviour but god it has just absolutely wrecked my faith in being able to get any help for all of this mess.....

I honestly feel.... terrified of myself.... Because I’ve had meltdowns before but I’ve never had one so bad I lost control of myself. Like I could have legitimately harmed myself in that mess. I even wanted to. It was the closest I’ve come in a long time of actually being like wow I could Actually Follow Through with Killing Myself and it terrified me because fuck at least that time years ago when I was planning on doing it I was more in control of the action and was able to stop....

Now I’m not even sure if I got in that state again I would be able to stop myself. And that’s terrifying....

To make things worse, that third day when the ambulance people were talking me down out of my whole mess, granny had been brought home and they ended up taking her back to the hospital because it was deemed not safe to let her in while I was upstairs screaming on the floor.

So :)))))) the police called. Because not allowing granny into her legal home was an issue and I was the cause :)))))))  Even tho I didn’t actually ban her with my words, I just wasn’t in a good mental state at the time and I tried so hard to calm down once i knew she was out there waiting but I was so stressed about what was going to happen I couldn’t get it together fast enough and then had to worry if I was going to be in huge trouble over it. So THAT’s wonderful.

Anyway. She came home the next day with a very very sore side and we weren’t sure if her ribs were sore from coughing or if she’d bashed herself in an unreported fall in hospital or what.

But the next day I was helping her take off the bra her carer that morning had put on her despite knowing her side pain and then she was sick and I was freaking out because granny and sick never go well so I was super worried...

Thankfully it wasn’t long lasting but the pain she had continued to be excruciating and a doctor came later on and said her liver area was very tender so she ought to go get it checked.

So we took her to hospital by car because we were told the ambulance wait would be longer.

But because the virus is increasing in the country again the restrictions are up. So while I had to come to help get granny in and out of the car, I wasn’t allowed to go with her and dad inside. And dad had the damn car keys and it was dark, late, cold as fuck and windy.

I was outside shivering my ass off with nowhere to wait for nearly 2 hours. They wouldn’t even let me in at first when I was about to piss myself.

After that first 2 hours dad briefly came out to tell me it was looking like it was gonna be a while longer so I just asked him for money for a taxi because at this point it was already after midnight.

I got like no sleep that night cos I was worrying about dad’s chronic sleep deprivation. He didn’t get home until 6am.

Anyways she’s been in and had scans but they can’t find anything and have just given her painkillers and mysteriously they say the side pain is gone. Whether thats just from painkillers or if it’s actually gone without discovering what caused it idk. But not knowing stresses me out like I’d have rather there was something to treat instead of it mysteriously being very painful and making her sick and then disappearing. Like what if it comes back?

hhhh anyway she’s supposed to come home tomorrow and again I still don’t feel like I’ve shaken off the burn out and my pain is still there too  so physically I’m still a mess and I feel so bad about my lack of productivity especially on commissions I still need to do...

I don’t even think I can take much more stuff happening this year like. I’m legit not sure I’m gonna make it to the end of the year rn folks...

[musingsofonehuman]

Let’s talk about Black Lives Matter...what’s that?...This is a gaming blog? Read the title at the top. Does it mention gaming? No. So let’s talk about Black Lives Matter.

I’ve argued with myself back and forth over whether I should write about this, whether I should say something, but every time I read about it I just get so angry, so sod it, I wanna talk about this, if you don’t wanna read this then fine, but understand that your ignorance is part of the problem. I will also say that I am not an expert in this matter, I know what I know and I have an opinion, these are the musings of one human, these are my thoughts and opinions, they are not a solution.

Like many of you, I’ve been watching the Black Lives Matter movement for the past few months following the death of George Floyd, the outcry of anger, people taking to the streets demanding change, and it is from this movement alongside many other movements and voices that the world has truly opened up and racism has been brought to the forefront. Throughout these times, I’ve been reading, listening, watching and learning all about the situation, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my own actions, reflecting on what I could do better, on how I could help end racism.

I’ll be honest, up until these past few months, I thought racism wasn’t a big problem, I thought, like a lot of people, that because Barack Obama had been voted in as US president that the world was moving on, it didn’t, racism never went away, it just went into the background, it’s only been because of the past few years that racism has suddenly come into the foreground again. But it never left us, we just chose to ignore it, and quite frankly, I’m disappointed in myself, it took a global pandemic, the killing of an innocent man and worldwide protests for me to finally wake up and realise that racism was a massive issue.

So where did it go wrong? Obviously, I have to start with my own self ignorance, and for that there is no excuse. I chose to ignore this issue, I chose to not pay attention to it, I chose to be ignorant while people suffered, people who are just like me, the only difference being the colour of our skin, and yet because of that, they’ve suffered far worse then I could ever imagine. There is no excuse for my ignorance, and for that, I am eternally sorry. But we also have to look at other factors, why wasn’t I taught about any of this in school? Why wasn’t I told about my country’s role in the slave trade? Why was I not educated about racism and why it’s such a big issue? Maybe it’s because our government tried to hide the truth, no, literally, they tried to hide the truth about the British Empire and the atrocities they committed during their reign, all because they didn’t want to own up to their mistakes, and that seems to be a running theme through all of this.

It seems to be that those who are in a position of privilege do not want to give that privilege up, definitely to people who they see as ‘inferior’ or ‘lesser people’. Is that really a bad thing? Does the colour of your skin really dictate who you are as a person? “This person is white so they’re gonna have a successful career, this person is black so they’re gonna be a murderer”. No, that’s not how the system works, the system works to actively oppress black people which is why they fight back, they’re not fighting back because that’s who they are. All these people that have been protesting, labelled as rioters, thugs, thieves, vandals, gangs, they’re not fighting to overthrow the world, they’re fighting for equality, they’re fighting for the same rights that I have, to be able to live in a world where people are not judged on the colour of their skin.

On that note about protesting, have you noticed how the media has been portraying this? On one side, you have people who are protesting for Black Lives Matter, and yet, they’ve been called all the above and more, while people who are protesting for All Lives Matter, which I will get onto, have been treated very kindly in the media, they’ve been called protestors, demonstrators, one media outlet even decided to call them ‘anti-anti-fascist protestors’. If you are that scared to say fascist protestors then don’t even bother, just say it as it is, they’re fascists protestors, they’re defending ideals that are fascist in nature, but no, apparently they’re the good guys in all of this because they’re not destroying public property and clashing with police, even though they totally are. Again, this idea of losing privilege, is this a privilege you really want? The privilege to be able to abuse black people because of the colour of their skin? Do you not have more moral decency than that, or are you literally just a monster?

Take the case that happened just this week, the shooting of Jacob Blake, now thankfully he is not dead, however he has been paralysed from the waist down and may never walk again, all because he opened his car door. Meanwhile, a 17 year old boy fired a rifle into a crowd of people, killed two people and injured another, walked towards the police with his hands up, and the police waved him away and didn’t arrest him, he turned himself in and has now been charged with murder. In all of this, the media has tried to paint the teenager as the good person in all of this, the teenager who illegally got a gun and killed two people all in the name of ‘defending property’. Meanwhile, Jacob Blake has been painted as a bad person because he had a knife in his car, nothing on his person, and is now in hospital where he has been handcuffed to his hospital bed. May I remind you, he was shot in his lower half and may never walk again. How? How is the teenager being portrayed as the good person here? In what world does a 17 year old get to carry a gun, fire it into a crowd, kill people and then walk away from it? Forget skin colour for a second, how is that right? How is that justice? How is a teenager, who in legal terms is still a minor, allowed to buy a gun and use it to kill, whether he intentionally wanted to or not, how is that possible?

It begs the question, what type of world do we want to live in? Seriously, stop reading for a moment and ask yourself, what world do you want to live in? Go ahead, I’ll wait... ... ... ...Thought about it? Well if your answer doesn’t include ‘a world where black people aren’t shot and killed for being black’ then your answer is wrong. It’s not just about being shot and killed, racism is a part of everyday life, whether we acknowledge it or not, from job prospects, to selling your house, to even getting Covid-19, racism is so prolific in our world. We are so used to being racist as a society, we don’t even know that we’re doing it, that’s why it’s comes as a big shock to me, because it’s not just big things like killing people, it’s all the little things, all those tiny things we don’t think about that make such a huge difference. I’ve talked before about music being a form of expression, and I discovered a track that does just that. The song is called Black and it’s by an artist called Dave, you may have heard this song as he performed a version of it at the Brit Awards this year where he called Boris Johnson ‘a real racist’, which by the way, top stuff. The song talks about what black people have to go through on a daily basis, giving scenarios and painting a picture of how black people struggle in this world because they are black. The original is important, but the Brit Awards version is so much more powerful, you need to listen to it, I’ll link it at the end of this blog, so when you’ve finished reading this you can go listen to it, and again, listen to it, don’t be ignorant.

I apologise if this blog seems a bit rambly, if it jumps all over the place, but this is me taking my raw emotions and trying to process them all, right now I’m not entirely sure what comes next, personally I’m still finding myself, who I am as an individual, I hope that I haven’t been racist in the past, if I have then I apologise, I am going to pay more attention to this issue, to educate myself further on this issue so that I can be more aware of this issue and what I can do to help. In terms of where the world goes, I don’t know, this isn’t gonna be solved overnight, this is gonna be something we deal with for a long time, long after we’re all dead, but we need to start educating people, it’s time we finally owned up to what we have become, it’s time we took responsibility for our mistakes. As white people, we took power away from others and kept it all to ourselves, now it’s time we gave that power back, otherwise we’re just as bad as the monsters we read about, we’re just as bad as Hitler and the Nazis, we may not be doing the same things, but our impacts are still the same.

Which brings me back to the All Lives Matter movement, which argues that all lives matter, not just black lives. Technically yes, all lives do matter, but all lives can’t matter until black lives matter, what you’re actually saying is ‘White Lives Matter’. You’re scared of losing your privilege, you’re scared because you feel you have to take responsibility for something you don’t want to, so instead you argue that all lives are equal so things must remain the same. But all lives aren’t equal, that’s clearly been shown, why are you so scared? What do you have to lose? Or do you not recognise just how much privilege you have as a white person? Let me take a page from Dave, let me ask you this? What do you think white is?... ... ...Got an answer? Ok. Let me tell you what white is.

White is living in a cosy neighbourhood surrounded by big houses and wealthy neighbours where hardly any crime happens.

White is complaining to the barista that they got your order wrong, and that’s the worst thing that happens to you all day.

White is getting into university and spending your time drinking at parties.

White is climbing up the career ladder faster than everyone else because the boss thinks you’re trustworthy.

White is making yourself the victim without taking any responsibility for the problems that you caused.

White is committing serious crimes but only getting a fraction of the recommended prison time.

White is complaining about foreigners taking opportunities that you’re too lazy to take.

White is walking down the street without people judging you.

White is not being immediately suspected for a crime.

White is choosing which history is saved and which history is destroyed.

White has really got a sour taste to it, here’s a taste of it, but white is all I know, and I’m ashamed of it.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Back to Life: COVID Lung Transplant Survivor Tells Her Story

Mayra Ramirez remembers the nightmares.

During six weeks on life support at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ramirez said, she had terrifying nightmares that she couldn’t distinguish from reality.

“Most of them involve me drowning,” she said. “I attribute that to me not being able to breathe, and struggling to breathe.”

On June 5, Ramirez, 28, became the first known COVID-19 patient in the U.S. to undergo a double lung transplant. She is strong enough now to begin sharing the story of her ordeal.

Mysterious Exposure

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mayra Ramirez began working from home. She’s unsure how she contracted COVID-19.(Northwestern Medicine)

Before the pandemic, Ramirez worked as a paralegal for an immigration law firm in Chicago. She enjoyed walking her dogs and running 5K races.

Ramirez had been working from home since mid-March, hardly leaving the house, so she has no idea how she contracted the coronavirus. In late April, she started experiencing chronic spasms, diarrhea, loss of taste and smell, and a slight fever.

“I felt very fatigued,” Ramirez said. “I wasn’t able to walk long distances without falling over. And that’s when I decided to go into the emergency room.”

From the ER to a Ventilator

The staff at Northwestern checked her vitals and found her oxygen levels were extremely low. She was given 10 minutes to explain her situation over the phone to her mother in North Carolina and appoint her to make medical decisions on her behalf.

Ramirez knew she was about to be placed on a ventilator, but she didn’t understand exactly what that meant.

“In Spanish, the word ‘ventilator’ — ventilador — is ‘fan,’ so I thought, ‘Oh, they’re just gonna blow some air into me and I’ll be OK. Maybe have a three-day stay, and then I’ll be right out.’ So I wasn’t very worried,” Ramirez said.

In fact, she would spend the next six weeks heavily sedated on that ventilator and another machine — known as ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — pumping and oxygenating her blood outside of her body.

In this photo taken before the transplant, Mayra Ramirez is being monitored by the ECMO team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.(Northwestern Medicine)

One theory about why Ramirez became so sick is that she has a neurological condition that is treated with steroids, drugs that can suppress the immune system.

By early June, Ramirez was at risk of further decline. She began showing signs that her kidneys and liver were starting to fail, with no improvement in her lung function. Her family was told she might not make it through the night, so her mother and sisters caught the first flight from North Carolina to Chicago to say goodbye.

When they arrived, the doctors told Ramirez’s mother, Nohemi Romero, that there was one last thing they could try.

Ramirez was a candidate for a double lung transplant, they said, although the procedure had never been done on a COVID patient in the U.S. Her mother agreed, and within 48 hours of being listed for transplant, a donor was found and the successful procedure was performed on June 5.

At a recent news conference held by Northwestern Memorial, Romero shared in Spanish that there were no words to describe the pain of not being by her daughter’s side as she struggled for her life.

She thanked God all went well, and for giving her the strength to make it through.

‘I Just Felt Like a Vegetable’

Dr. Ankit Bharat, Northwestern Medicine’s chief of thoracic surgery, performed the 10-hour procedure.

“Most patients are quite sick going into [a] lung transplant,” Bharat said in an interview in June. “But she was so sick. In fact, I can say without hesitation, the sickest patient I ever transplanted.”

Bharat said most COVID-19 patients will not be candidates for transplants because of their age and other health conditions that decrease the likelihood of success. And early research shows that up to half of COVID patients on ventilators survive the illness and are likely to recover on their own.

But for some, like Ramirez, Bharat said, a transplant can be a lifesaving option of last resort.

When Ramirez woke up after the operation, she was disoriented, could barely move her body and couldn’t speak.

“I just felt like a vegetable. It was frustrating, but at the time I didn’t have the cognitive ability to process what was going on,” Ramirez said.

She recalled being sad that her mother wasn’t with her in the hospital, not understanding that visitors weren’t allowed because of the pandemic.

Her family had sent photos to post by her hospital bed, and Ramirez said she couldn’t recognize anyone in the pictures.

“I was actually sort of upset about it, [thinking,] ‘Who are these strangers and why are their pictures in my room?’” Ramirez said. “It was weeks later, actually, that I took a second look and realized, ‘Hey, that’s my grandmother. That’s my mom and my siblings. And that’s me.”

After a few weeks, Ramirez said, she finally understood what happened to her. When COVID-19 restrictions loosened at the hospital in mid-June, her mother was finally able to visit.

“The first thing I did was just tear up,” Ramirez said. “I was overjoyed to see her.”

The Long Road to Recovery

After weeks of inpatient rehabilitation, Ramirez was discharged home. She’s now receiving in-home nursing assistance as well as physical and occupational therapy, and she’s working on finding a psychologist.

Ramirez eagerly looks forward to being able to spend more time with her family, her boyfriend and her dogs and serving the immigrant community through her legal work.

But for now, her days are consumed by rehab. Her doctors say it will be at least a year before she can function independently and be as active as before.

Ramirez is slowly regaining strength and learning how to breathe with her new lungs.

She takes more than 17 pills, four times a day, including medicines to prevent her body from rejecting the new lungs. She also takes anxiety meds and antidepressants to help her cope with daily nightmares and panic attacks.

The long-term physical and mental health tolls on Ramirez and other COVID-19 survivors remain largely unknown, since the virus is so new.

While most people who contract the virus are left seemingly unscathed, for some patients, like Ramirez, the road to recovery is full of uncertainty, said Dr. Mady Hornig, a physician-scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Some patients can experience post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS, which can consist of depression, memory issues and other cognitive and mental health problems, Hornig said. Under normal circumstances, ICU visits from loved ones are encouraged, she said, because the human interaction can be protective.

“That type of contact would normally keep people oriented … so that it doesn’t become as traumatic,” Hornig said.

Hopes for the Future

COVID-19 has disproportionately harmed Latino communities, as Latinos are overrepresented in jobs that expose them to the virus and have lower rates of health insurance and other social protections.

Ramirez has health insurance, although that hasn’t spared her from tens and thousands of dollars’ worth of medical bills.

And even though she still ended up getting COVID-19, she counts herself lucky for having a job that allowed her to work from home when the pandemic struck. Many Latino workers don’t have that luxury, she said, so they’re forced to risk their lives doing low-wage jobs deemed essential at this time.

Ramirez’s mother is a breast cancer survivor, making her particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. She had been working at a meatpacking plant in North Carolina, for a company that Ramirez said has had hundreds of COVID-19 cases among employees.

So Ramirez is relieved to have her mom in Chicago, helping take care of her.

“I’m glad this is taking her away from her position,” Ramirez said.

Friends and family in North Carolina have been fundraising to help pay her medical bills, selling raffle tickets and setting up a GoFundMe page on her behalf. Ramirez is also applying for financial assistance from the hospital.

Her experience with COVID-19 has not changed who she is as a person, she said, and she looks forward to living her life to the fullest.

If she ever gets the chance to speak with the family of the person whose lungs she now has, she said, she will thank them “for raising such a healthy child and a caring person [who] was kind enough to become an organ donor.”

Her life may never be the same, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try. She laughs as she explains how she asked her surgeon to take her skydiving someday.

“Dr. Bharat actually used to work at a skydiving company when he was younger,” Ramirez said. “And so he promised me that, hopefully within a year, he could get me there.”

And she has every intention of holding him to that promise.

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes Illinois Public Media, Side Effects Public Media, NPR and KHN.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Back to Life: COVID Lung Transplant Survivor Tells Her Story published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

Back to Life: COVID Lung Transplant Survivor Tells Her Story

Mayra Ramirez remembers the nightmares.

During six weeks on life support at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ramirez said, she had terrifying nightmares that she couldn’t distinguish from reality.

“Most of them involve me drowning,” she said. “I attribute that to me not being able to breathe, and struggling to breathe.”

On June 5, Ramirez, 28, became the first known COVID-19 patient in the U.S. to undergo a double lung transplant. She is strong enough now to begin sharing the story of her ordeal.

Mysterious Exposure

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mayra Ramirez began working from home. She’s unsure how she contracted COVID-19.(Northwestern Medicine)

Before the pandemic, Ramirez worked as a paralegal for an immigration law firm in Chicago. She enjoyed walking her dogs and running 5K races.

Ramirez had been working from home since mid-March, hardly leaving the house, so she has no idea how she contracted the coronavirus. In late April, she started experiencing chronic spasms, diarrhea, loss of taste and smell, and a slight fever.

“I felt very fatigued,” Ramirez said. “I wasn’t able to walk long distances without falling over. And that’s when I decided to go into the emergency room.”

From the ER to a Ventilator

The staff at Northwestern checked her vitals and found her oxygen levels were extremely low. She was given 10 minutes to explain her situation over the phone to her mother in North Carolina and appoint her to make medical decisions on her behalf.

Ramirez knew she was about to be placed on a ventilator, but she didn’t understand exactly what that meant.

“In Spanish, the word ‘ventilator’ — ventilador — is ‘fan,’ so I thought, ‘Oh, they’re just gonna blow some air into me and I’ll be OK. Maybe have a three-day stay, and then I’ll be right out.’ So I wasn’t very worried,” Ramirez said.

In fact, she would spend the next six weeks heavily sedated on that ventilator and another machine — known as ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — pumping and oxygenating her blood outside of her body.

In this photo taken before the transplant, Mayra Ramirez is being monitored by the ECMO team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.(Northwestern Medicine)

One theory about why Ramirez became so sick is that she has a neurological condition that is treated with steroids, drugs that can suppress the immune system.

By early June, Ramirez was at risk of further decline. She began showing signs that her kidneys and liver were starting to fail, with no improvement in her lung function. Her family was told she might not make it through the night, so her mother and sisters caught the first flight from North Carolina to Chicago to say goodbye.

When they arrived, the doctors told Ramirez’s mother, Nohemi Romero, that there was one last thing they could try.

Ramirez was a candidate for a double lung transplant, they said, although the procedure had never been done on a COVID patient in the U.S. Her mother agreed, and within 48 hours of being listed for transplant, a donor was found and the successful procedure was performed on June 5.

At a recent news conference held by Northwestern Memorial, Romero shared in Spanish that there were no words to describe the pain of not being by her daughter’s side as she struggled for her life.

She thanked God all went well, and for giving her the strength to make it through.

‘I Just Felt Like a Vegetable’

Dr. Ankit Bharat, Northwestern Medicine’s chief of thoracic surgery, performed the 10-hour procedure.

“Most patients are quite sick going into [a] lung transplant,” Bharat said in an interview in June. “But she was so sick. In fact, I can say without hesitation, the sickest patient I ever transplanted.”

Bharat said most COVID-19 patients will not be candidates for transplants because of their age and other health conditions that decrease the likelihood of success. And early research shows that up to half of COVID patients on ventilators survive the illness and are likely to recover on their own.

But for some, like Ramirez, Bharat said, a transplant can be a lifesaving option of last resort.

When Ramirez woke up after the operation, she was disoriented, could barely move her body and couldn’t speak.

“I just felt like a vegetable. It was frustrating, but at the time I didn’t have the cognitive ability to process what was going on,” Ramirez said.

She recalled being sad that her mother wasn’t with her in the hospital, not understanding that visitors weren’t allowed because of the pandemic.

Her family had sent photos to post by her hospital bed, and Ramirez said she couldn’t recognize anyone in the pictures.

“I was actually sort of upset about it, [thinking,] ‘Who are these strangers and why are their pictures in my room?’” Ramirez said. “It was weeks later, actually, that I took a second look and realized, ‘Hey, that’s my grandmother. That’s my mom and my siblings. And that’s me.”

After a few weeks, Ramirez said, she finally understood what happened to her. When COVID-19 restrictions loosened at the hospital in mid-June, her mother was finally able to visit.

“The first thing I did was just tear up,” Ramirez said. “I was overjoyed to see her.”

The Long Road to Recovery

After weeks of inpatient rehabilitation, Ramirez was discharged home. She’s now receiving in-home nursing assistance as well as physical and occupational therapy, and she’s working on finding a psychologist.

Ramirez eagerly looks forward to being able to spend more time with her family, her boyfriend and her dogs and serving the immigrant community through her legal work.

But for now, her days are consumed by rehab. Her doctors say it will be at least a year before she can function independently and be as active as before.

Ramirez is slowly regaining strength and learning how to breathe with her new lungs.

She takes more than 17 pills, four times a day, including medicines to prevent her body from rejecting the new lungs. She also takes anxiety meds and antidepressants to help her cope with daily nightmares and panic attacks.

The long-term physical and mental health tolls on Ramirez and other COVID-19 survivors remain largely unknown, since the virus is so new.

While most people who contract the virus are left seemingly unscathed, for some patients, like Ramirez, the road to recovery is full of uncertainty, said Dr. Mady Hornig, a physician-scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Some patients can experience post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS, which can consist of depression, memory issues and other cognitive and mental health problems, Hornig said. Under normal circumstances, ICU visits from loved ones are encouraged, she said, because the human interaction can be protective.

“That type of contact would normally keep people oriented … so that it doesn’t become as traumatic,” Hornig said.

Hopes for the Future

COVID-19 has disproportionately harmed Latino communities, as Latinos are overrepresented in jobs that expose them to the virus and have lower rates of health insurance and other social protections.

Ramirez has health insurance, although that hasn’t spared her from tens and thousands of dollars’ worth of medical bills.

And even though she still ended up getting COVID-19, she counts herself lucky for having a job that allowed her to work from home when the pandemic struck. Many Latino workers don’t have that luxury, she said, so they’re forced to risk their lives doing low-wage jobs deemed essential at this time.

Ramirez’s mother is a breast cancer survivor, making her particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. She had been working at a meatpacking plant in North Carolina, for a company that Ramirez said has had hundreds of COVID-19 cases among employees.

So Ramirez is relieved to have her mom in Chicago, helping take care of her.

“I’m glad this is taking her away from her position,” Ramirez said.

Friends and family in North Carolina have been fundraising to help pay her medical bills, selling raffle tickets and setting up a GoFundMe page on her behalf. Ramirez is also applying for financial assistance from the hospital.

Her experience with COVID-19 has not changed who she is as a person, she said, and she looks forward to living her life to the fullest.

If she ever gets the chance to speak with the family of the person whose lungs she now has, she said, she will thank them “for raising such a healthy child and a caring person [who] was kind enough to become an organ donor.”

Her life may never be the same, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try. She laughs as she explains how she asked her surgeon to take her skydiving someday.

“Dr. Bharat actually used to work at a skydiving company when he was younger,” Ramirez said. “And so he promised me that, hopefully within a year, he could get me there.”

And she has every intention of holding him to that promise.

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes Illinois Public Media, Side Effects Public Media, NPR and KHN.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Back to Life: COVID Lung Transplant Survivor Tells Her Story published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog]

Public Health Vs. Personal Promotion

By Jessica Bride, George Washington University Class of 2022

June 24, 2020

On June 20th, 2020, President Trump held a re-election campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Initial criticism of the rally stemmed from its original date: Juneteenth. Juneteenth, or June 19th,is celebrated to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States [1]. Trump’s comeback rally was finally moved to June 20 in response to the backlash.In order to host the event, the Secret Service asked G.T. Bynum, the mayor of Tulsa, to remove Tulsa’s curfew [2]. The curfew had only been in effect for one day, but Mayor Bynum agreed [2]. Like other cities across the U.S., Tulsa’s decision to implement a curfew had been in response to recent protests for racial justice.

Notably, May 31st had marked the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which occurred in 1921,and was a tragic outcome of local racial tensions [3].Lasting two days, a Black neighborhood in Tulsa was targeted by white residents, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries as well as extensive property damage [3]. As of 2020, Oklahoma school districts now require the event is taught as a part of their curriculum [4]. With these events in mind, many residentsof Tulsa were disheartened by the date and location of Trump’s campaign rally [5].As a result, Black Lives Matter protests continued, no longer restricted by a city-wide curfew.

This was also Trump’s first rally since the World Health Organization (WHO)recognized the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a global pandemic.The rally was held in the BOK Center, which has a capacity of 19,199 people [6].Concern about the spread of COVID-19 surfaced as the event was considered too risky.When state officials were questioned about the rally, the Governor recognized the individual freedom of citizens to decide to attend the rally or not, and Mayor Bynum confirmed that he would not stop the rally using his emergency powers [7]. As a result, the responsibility to limit one’s risk to the disease then lies with the rally attendees themselves.

Since June 14th, Oklahoma has had a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases, and even broke two records leading up to the rally [8]. Six members of Trump’s campaign staff who worked on the Tulsa event tested positive the day of the comeback rally [9]. While this news may have discouraged some potential Trump supporters from going to the rally, those who did attend were required to sign a waiver [9]. The waiver provided legal protection for Trump and his staff against lawsuits from attendees exposed to COVID-19 during the rally. The disclaimer below was available on donaldjtrump.com for the June 20th rally [10]. However, the registration page for the June 21st event in Tulsa no longer included the message.

With a potential of over nineteen thousand participants, the rally remained a public health risk. Tulsa residents and business owners shared concern about attendees spreading the virus. The BOK Cente rmanager was sued on behalf of the Greenwood Centre and “two immuno-compromised” plaintiffs, specifically[11]. The possibility of an outdoor rally had previously been rejected. The lawsuit was ultimately denied on June 19th, after being heard by the Oklahoma Supreme Court [11].

Trump’s rally did have precautions.Signed on June 10th, the BOK Center’s unreleased license agreement with the Trump campaign outlined these safety measures [11]. Staff checked the temperature of attendees before they entered the building [9]. Also,concessions were sold around plexiglass partitions and event staff installed several hundred hand sanitizing stations [2]. Reporters and images of the event confirm that few attendees wore masks [9].While masks were offered, they were not required.

But Trump’s team was surprised that night not because of COVID-19, but because of the attendance rates. Despite the current pandemic, just over six thousand people attended the June 20th reelectionrally [12]. In contrast,Trump had claimed that around a million people claimed tickets [9]. On June 14th, Trump’s campaign manager had even highlighted that the Tulsa rally was “biggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x” [13]. From a public health perspective, the rally was safer than expected because only a fraction of those who registered attended.

________________________________________________________________Jessica Bride is a rising junior at The George Washington University pursuing degrees in Psychology and Criminal Justice. She is interested in pursuing a career in public service that allows her to conduct research. Along with the social sciences, she is also passionate about creative writing and activism.

________________________________________________________________

[1] “History of Juneteenth”.National Registry: Juneteenth Organizations and Supporters,National Juneteenth Register,https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm

[2]Torres, Ella, and Catherine Thorbecke. “Tulsa officials announce precautions ahead of Trump's 'unprecedented' rally.” ABC News, 19 June 2020,https://abcnews.go.com/US/tulsa-officials-announce-precautions-ahead-trumps-unprecedented-rally/story?id=71342463

[3] “The Case for Reparations in Tulsa, Oklahoma.”Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2020/05/TheCaseforReparations_Tulsa_Final_1.pdf

[4] Querry, K. “Oklahoma state leaders to roll out new curriculum on Tulsa Race Massacre”. KFOR-TV, 19 February2020.

[5] Brown, DeNeen. “Black leaders in Tulsa rush to cover up Black Wall Street memorials before planned tour by Pence.” The Washington Post, 21 June 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/20/black-leaders-tulsa-rush-cover-up-black-wall-street-memorials-before-planned-tour-by-pence/

[6] “Inside BOK Center Capacity” (pdf). Tulsa World. 2007.

[7] Hoberock, Barbara. “Gov. Stitt Q&A on Trump rally in Tulsa: A venue change? A tour of Greenwood? The danger of COVID?”. Tulsa World.

[8] Querry, K., and HichamRaache. “COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma surge; OSDH reports 450 new cases”. KFOR.com, 18 June 2020.

[9] “Trump's Tulsa rally: Empty seats, outdoor speeches cancelled after poor turnout.” Newshub, 21 June 2020, https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/06/trump-s-tulsa-rally-empty-seats-outdoor-speeches-cancelled-after-poor-turnout.html

[10] https://events.donaldjtrump.com/events/team-trump-on-the-road-tulsa-ok-june-21?utm_content=rally_list&utm_medium=web&utm_source=djt_web

[11] Partlow, J., Itkowitz, C., and Annie Gowen. “Tulsa arena asks Trump campaign for detailed health plan as Oklahoma Supreme Court hears arguments about rally.” The Washington Post, 18 June 2020,https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-arena-asks-trump-campaign-for-detailed-health-plan-as-oklahoma-supreme-court-hears-arguments-about-rally/2020/06/18/4e490308-b197-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html

[12] Nobles, Ryan. “Tulsa official says 6,200 attended Trump rally as campaign tries to blame 'radical' protesters and media for lack of crowd.” CNN, 21 June 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/21/politics/trump-rally-tulsa-attendance/index.html

[13] Porter, Tim. “TikTok teens say they tanked Trump's comeback rally in Tulsa by reserving thousands of tickets then not showing up.” Business Insider, 21 June 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-teens-and-k-pop-fans-tanked-trumps-tulsa-rally-2020-6

[marymosley]

How to Survive a Biglaw Deferral

Editor's Note: Today's post comes from reader Marissa Geannette, a former Biglaw associate, who runs a career blog, The Unbillable Life, where she writes about her experiences working in Biglaw in NYC. She recently published a book “Behind the Biglaw Curtain: Demystifying the Junior Associate Experience” all about how to succeed as a junior associate in Biglaw, which you can find on Amazon. Along with advice on how junior attorneys can succeed in Biglaw, she also blogs about why she left that career after eight years to pursue an alternative, less traditional path. Read more career success tips and career change advice on the blog or reach out to her at marissa@theunbillablelife.com with any questions or comments. We have no financial relationship.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world, and Biglaw hasn’t been spared. While most firms have managed to avoid mass layoffs, it’s time for the Class of 2020 and, most likely, the Class of 2021, to face the very real possibility that your fall Biglaw start date will be delayed. In fact, many law firms have already announced deferrals and postponed the start dates for their incoming associates (check out Above the Law for the latest updates and firm-specific announcements). 

In the past, Biglaw has weathered an economic downturn (e.g., the Great Recession) by deferring the start dates of its incoming first-year associate classes, and they look to be doing the same during the pandemic. 

What should recent law school graduates and law students know about Biglaw deferrals? First, know that deferrals are likely (if they haven’t already been announced) for this year and the following year (and possibly even the one after that). Second, know that you can plan for one and don’t have to get caught off-guard. Lastly, rest assured that a deferral is not the end of the world (or your legal career). 

As a 2009 law school graduate, I know what it’s like to get that deferral notice. Suddenly, all of the plans you had made – study for and take the bar, take a “bar trip” around the world, move to a new city, and begin work as a first-year associate in the fall – go out the window. After the market crash of 2008 and the recession that followed, Biglaw wasn’t exactly desperate to take on (and pay) new associates when there wasn’t much work. 

The solution? Mass deferrals (for both the Class of 2009 and the Class of 2010). It’s looking like this will be the solution for the Class of 2020 as well. Let’s dive into what we know about coronavirus-related deferrals, how you can plan for a deferral by getting your financial house in order to the best of your ability, and why everything is going to be OK. 

Coronavirus-Related Biglaw Deferrals – What We Know and Don’t Know

There are so many unknowns when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. When will Biglaw offices open up? When will work tick back up? Is the downturn temporary or will it last for years? There are so many things we don’t know, but some that we do. 

What We Know

While not all firms have announced delayed start dates, and those that have announced them might decide to push start dates back even further, there are some things about the deferrals that we do know: 

We know that deferrals have been announced or are in the works for many Biglaw firms and that most start dates have been pushed back to January or February 2021. 

We know that many firms are offering varying levels of compensation, from stipends to salary advances. However, some seem to be offering nothing at all (at least nothing that has been publicly announced). 

It does not look like any major Biglaw firms have plans to rescind offers – the deferrals are meant to be just that – delayed starts, not layoffs. 

What We Don’t Know

There is more that we don’t know about these deferrals. We don’t know: 

Whether start dates will be pushed back further. Even if a firm announced a start date of January 2021, for example, depending on how the pandemic plays out and how it continues to affect the economy and Biglaw, some firms might need to delay start dates even further. 

Will any firms end up deferring associates for an entire year, as they did in 2009?

What kind of monetary stipends will firms settle on (these seem to be changing as the pandemic wears on)?

How will these Class of 2020 deferrals affect the Class of 2021? Rising 3Ls should be aware that they, too, might be deferred. The ripple effects in 2009 affected the classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 in different ways.

Plan for a Deferral Now, Whether or Not You’ve Gotten the News 

As you can see, there are lots of unknowns, both for the current class of incoming associates as well as for future ones (a deferred class one year often affects the following years, until the firm can rebalance its summer associate and incoming associate numbers). 

With all of the unknows, what can you do? The bottom line is that whether or not you’ve received word that you will be deferred, you should plan as if you will be. Here are some tangible steps you can take: 

1. Save your Biglaw summer salary and cut back on your expenses starting now.

If it’s not too late, put away as much of your Biglaw summer salary as possible. If you are a law student planning to summer in Biglaw next year, don’t spend like a Biglaw lawyer before you are one, especially now. 

If you are already living like a poor law student, plan to continue living like that for the near future (this is good practice, anyway). If you took your Biglaw summer salary and upgraded your life, think long and hard about those upgrades. It’s not too late to turn back and unlock the golden handcuffs before they trap you for the long-term. (Living below your means is good practice for law firm associates in general – you do not want to get trapped by golden handcuffs if it turns out Biglaw isn’t right for you.)

2. Think twice before moving to or signing a lease in a new city, or upgrading your living quarters just yet.

If your Biglaw job is in a new city, don’t move there until you are certain your job will start (and start paying you). Don’t move to an expensive city like New York until the very last moment (it is so easy to get a rental right now – landlords are offering deals left and right and are basically begging for tenants, so there’s no rush). 

Stay at home, stay living with roommates, do whatever you can to keep your housing costs low. Once you begin work, you might even be able to stay in or temporarily move to a lower cost of living city if your colleagues continue to work remotely (talk to your firm about their plans for getting people back to the office and be flexible with moving in case you do need to go to the office). 

If you already live in the same city as your job, don’t upgrade your living space just yet. When you are a Biglaw attorney, there are certain perks you are definitely justified spending money on, and there are certain “non-essentials” (a well-equipped home office) that really are essentials for Biglaw associates. But if you aren’t starting your Biglaw job until January, February, or even the fall of 2021, don’t splurge on the expenses related to a Biglaw job until you actually begin that Biglaw job. 

3. Have a “plan B” for health insurance coverage. 

If there’s one thing COVID-19 has shown everyone (even healthy young adults), it’s the fragility of life and the importance of health insurance, no matter your age. If you were counting on receiving health insurance through your job, you need to have a plan B for getting coverage if you are not starting that job as expected. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, young adults can remain on their family’s health insurance plan until they turn 26. This applies to some recent law graduates, but certainly not all, either because your family does not have coverage or because you are already over 26. 

When I was deferred for a year, while my firm gave everyone in my class a stiped, they did not put us on the firm’s health insurance. This was pre-Obamacare, so I had to find my own coverage. It was not cheap, and I don’t think I saw the doctor once that year, but it certainly was worth the peace of mind knowing I had coverage if I needed it. Buying your own health insurance can be costly, but it is temporary, and you do not want to risk being uninsured, especially now.

4. When You Do Start Working – Remember to Avoid These Classic Financial Mistakes

Keep in mind that you will start working eventually. This deferral is temporary, so take the time now to educate yourself on how to manage your money when you do start making a steady Biglaw salary. Not managing your student loan debt, overconsuming – these are just a couple of the classic financial mistakes new lawyers make. If you educate yourself on these pitfalls before you begin working, you’ll be less likely to make them.  

It’s All Going to Be OK

I hope this doesn’t sound too naïve, but I did want to end on a somewhat positive note to say that, no matter what, it is all going to be OK. 

Why am I so sure about this?

First, because it ended up OK for my classmates and me when we were deferred in 2009. We all figured it out. Some were deferred for a year and started their jobs in Biglaw, just one year later. Others decided to forego Biglaw altogether (you never know what you’ll discover during your deferral period – there are plenty of alternative careers for lawyers, and sometimes taking a step back and thinking about what you really want to do will open your mind to these other careers). And everyone ended up OK. 

Second, because it is not in the firms’ best interests to leave their incoming associates or future associates hanging out to dry. A deferral is temporary. I don’t mean to minimize the effects of a deferral – they are great and, depending on your financial situation and privilege, can be hugely consequential. Losing expected income during a time like this is hard on anyone. But the pandemic will pass eventually and law firms will need junior associates. While we don’t know when this will be, it will happen.

Third, because Biglaw knows that it cannot renege on offers to incoming associates, which is why they defer associates in the first place. Rescinding offers during a time like this would look awful for the firm’s reputation and they would have trouble competing for law students during upcoming recruiting seasons. 

I’m confident that a deferral means just that – a delayed start. In most cases, you will end up in Biglaw, just a little later than planned. If you prepare for it to the best of your abilities, manage your finances, and take care of your health, you’ll survive a Biglaw deferral just fine.

Originally posted on How to Survive a Biglaw Deferral

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[brajeshupadhyay]

Trump Administration Says Some Coronavirus Tests Can Bypass F.D.A. Scrutiny

The Trump administration this week ordered the Food and Drug Administration to allow the use of a certain class of laboratory tests, including some for the coronavirus, without first confirming that they work.

For months some F.D.A. officials have worried that the pandemic would provide an opening for clinics, academic institutions and commercial labs to get what they had long been lobbying for: the leeway to develop their own laboratory tests for various diseases without F.D.A. oversight. On Wednesday that became a reality.

Some lawmakers are also troubled by the change, particularly during a public health emergency when the need for accurate coronavirus tests is high. The F.D.A. has required that it provide emergency authorizations for lab-developed tests during other outbreaks.

The announcement “is deeply concerning and suggests that the Trump Administration is once again interfering with F.D.A.’s regulation of medical products,” Representative Frank Pallone, Jr., of New Jersey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

“I do not believe that now is the time to reduce oversight of COVID-19 tests,” he said.

While most common laboratory tests are commercial tests, manufactured and marketed to multiple labs, other tests are developed and validated within one particular laboratory. These tests, called “laboratory-developed tests” or LDTs are used solely within that laboratory and generally are not distributed or sold to any other labs or health care facilities, although some work with mail-in samples.

The new policy states that lab-developed tests will no longer require F.D.A. authorization.

The announcement notes that the administration is committed “to ensuring that the American people are protected against future pandemics, and to keeping duplicative regulations and unnecessary policies from interfering with those efforts.”

The administration faced widespread criticism for failing to make coronavirus tests available earlier in the outbreak, and for ongoing shortages and delays. But critics say that freeing all lab-developed tests from F.D.A. scrutiny — including those for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and genetic conditions — will pose new problems.

“I think it’s quite alarming,” said Jeff Allen, president and chief executive of Friends of Cancer Research. He noted that a growing number of tests are in development to help determine whether cancer patients are responsive to certain drugs. “It’s really important for the performance of those tests to be assured.”

Mr. Allen and other critics also note that the new plan appears to leave the F.D.A. with no knowledge of what lab-developed tests are being devised, much less how they are performing.

“Suppose you get a Covid test and you actually have the infection and it comes back negative,” said Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “You may believe you’re OK and that may leave you in your home, exposing family and friends to the virus when you should quarantine.”

Earlier this year, the F.D.A. noted just that problem. In response to an inquiry, agency spokeswoman Emma Spaulding said in a statement in May that there were problems with some of the laboratory coronavirus tests whose developers had applied for emergency authorization.

“Some of the laboratories didn’t do their validation properly, making it impossible to tell if they had a good test or not,” Ms. Spaulding said. “Others included data that suggested the test did not perform well, likely missing far more positive cases than authorized tests.”

Other laboratories, she added, had manufacturing problems such as contamination. And several made unsupported claims in their labels for home testing.

The Coronavirus Outbreak ›

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated August 17, 2020

Why does standing six feet away from others help?

The coronavirus spreads primarily through droplets from your mouth and nose, especially when you cough or sneeze. The C.D.C., one of the organizations using that measure, bases its recommendation of six feet on the idea that most large droplets that people expel when they cough or sneeze will fall to the ground within six feet. But six feet has never been a magic number that guarantees complete protection. Sneezes, for instance, can launch droplets a lot farther than six feet, according to a recent study. It’s a rule of thumb: You should be safest standing six feet apart outside, especially when it’s windy. But keep a mask on at all times, even when you think you’re far enough apart.

I have antibodies. Am I now immune?

As of right now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been frightening accounts of people suffering what seems to be a second bout of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may last in the body only two to three months, which may seem worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It may be possible to get the coronavirus again, but it’s highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or make people sicker the second time.

I’m a small-business owner. Can I get relief?

The stimulus bills enacted in March offer help for the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for aid are businesses and nonprofit organizations with fewer than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some industries are also eligible. The help being offered, which is being managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But lots of folks have not yet seen payouts. Even those who have received help are confused: The rules are draconian, and some are stuck sitting on money they don’t know how to use. Many small-business owners are getting less than they expected or not hearing anything at all.

What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work?

What is school going to look like in September?

It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.

Under the new policy, the agency would not find out about these problems.

A different spokeswoman for the F.D.A. on Thursday referred requests for comment to the Department of Health and Human Services. Caitlin Oakley, a department spokeswoman, said the decision was made after a legal review.

Under the policy, the F.D.A. retains the power to give emergency authorizations to companies that voluntary apply for them. The agency may also attempt to institute new rules for these tests, but would have to go through a cumbersome formal review process first. Such rules are subject to White House approval.

The new policy covers tests developed by laboratories certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program, which is part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It does not change the requirements for tests that are made and marketed by companies to be sold off site, such as the rapid point-of-care tests for the coronavirus.

Susan Van Meter, executive director of AdvaMedDx, the diagnostic division of AdvaMed, the medical device trade group, said her organization was still trying to assess the implications of the policy. Ms. Van Meter also said her organization would like to see the F.D.A.’s entire policy on lab-developed tests updated.

“We really think a new, overarching, modernized regulatory framework for all diagnostic tests” is important, she said.

The post Trump Administration Says Some Coronavirus Tests Can Bypass F.D.A. Scrutiny appeared first on Shri Times News.

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[ecoorganic]

Big Ten Football Parents Want Answers After Sudden Shift to Postpone Season

Parents of football players from various Big Ten schools want their voices heard, demanding details about why the league so quickly pivoted to calling off fall ball.

Pablo Fields was driving on the Cobb Parkway in Kennesaw, Ga., Tuesday afternoon when he heard the news: His son Justin’s junior football season at Ohio State was being postponed—at best—by the Big Ten Conference.

“I pulled over,” Pablo Fields said. “It was a really, really bad day, one you’ll never forget.”

What he heard in his son’s voice that day hasn’t left him, either. Justin Fields was a Heisman Trophy finalists last year and will be a first-round NFL draft pick with or without playing another down of college football, but he badly wanted to have a fall season.

“My son is always upbeat and positive, but in our conversation that day he was heartbroken,” Pablo said. “I don’t think he wants to be done being a college football player. We’re not rich by any means, but he’s not in a hurry to get the dollars. He loves Ohio State University and loves his teammates, and he has some unfinished business he’d like to complete.”

Can that business still be completed? It seems unlikely, but many Big Ten parents of football players haven’t yet given up the fight.

You may have seen the letter

Iowa parents had hand-delivered to Big Ten Conference offices in Chicago this week. They’re not alone.

Parents of football players from various Big Ten schools want their voices heard. They want answers about why the league pivoted from releasing a schedule Aug. 5 to postponing the entire season Aug. 11. They want details on the findings from the medical advisory board that helped inform the decision to call off fall ball.

And they still want a chance for their sons to play. Even if that means bringing in the lawyers. (Keep reading.)

“I felt like the season was pulled out from under them before they got a chance,” said Amanda Babb, stepmom of Ohio State player Kamryn Babb, and head of the team’s parents association. “They were told by their coaches, ‘We have to follow these safety protocols to have a season,’ and they did. Then it didn’t even matter.”

Babb’s organization drafted its own letter Saturday, also sending it to the Big Ten. Dianne Freiermuth, president of the Penn State parents organization, produced a letter last weekend, before the season was shut down, urging the league to let their sons play.

“The decision just came too quick,” said Freiermuth, mother of Nittany Lions tight end Pat Freiermuth. “I totally believe in medical experts and think we should be listening to them—if the right thing to do medically is not to play, I’m fine with that. But to go from releasing the schedule to the start of practice to stopping the season, without explanation, is just wrong.”

From Tim Ford, father of Illinois tight end Luke Ford: “I think the way this was handled was atrocious. As if they didn’t have three-four months to figure something out.”

Maurice Goodson, father of Iowa running back Tyler Goodson, took a more conciliatory tone. But he’d still like to hear more information about what the Big Ten did.

“It’s devastating news, it really is,” Goodson said. “I get it, I really do—we all want our players to be in good health. We just want to know why, what changed, and for the Big Ten to provide those answers to us.”

It is worth noting that the parental disapproval rating of the Big Ten’s action is far from unanimous. Plenty of them aren’t sending letters or emails to the league office.

“I am OK with the Big Ten’s decision,” said Kim Newsome, mother of Nebraska defensive back Quinton Newsome. “I know my child wants to play, for the love of the sport. But at what risk? I love football, too, and I think they should just sit it out for the year.”

Several parents brought up the stress the situation has placed on their sons, and the lack of direction they now feel going forward.

“They’re lost,” Dianne Freiermuth said. “They don’t have answers. From a conference that prides itself on mental health, to do it this way? It leaves a bitter taste.”

Ultimately, this could be headed beyond players and parents voicing discontent and wind up where so many contentious issues do in America—in the land of lawyers. Prominent college sports attorney Tom Mars told SI that “several Big Ten players’ parents asked for help” in trying to find a way to play immediately. In response, Mars drew up a two-page document entitled, “Action Plan to Mitigate Concerns and Legal Risks of Playing Fall 2020 Football.” (Read that document here.)

Mars said he shared the plan with at least two head coaches in the Big Ten, who in turn have passed it to parents of some players. The plan is based on four premises, the most important of which are getting all major stakeholders—players, parents, conference commissioners, university presidents, athletic directors and head coaches—to unite behind a petition to the NCAA to rescind its ban on liability waivers.

You may recall that some schools trotted out various versions of a waiver for their players to sign when they returned to campus in June for summer workouts. Those were met with some considerable backlash, not the least of which came from the United States Senate.

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced legislation June 30 to prohibit COVID-19 waivers that some colleges were requiring their athletes sign in order to work out on campus. When NCAA president Mark Emmert appeared before a Senate Judiciary Panel in July, he was asked about the waivers.

“I am categorically opposed to it,” Emmert said. “It is an inappropriate thing for schools to be doing.” By early August, the NCAA had banned liability waivers.

Mars’s plan suggests a multi-pronged campaign to get that ban overturned. The chances of that might not be great, but if it happens, the next steps would be as follows, from the plan:

“Member institutions retain legal counsel within their state to draft a ‘liability waiver’ that includes terms regarding Covid-19 that plainly and thoroughly explain all known risks of being infected and the known and potential long-term health effects, limits or extinguishes liability for negligence, disavows player’s reliance on statements outside the contract made by the school or its representatives, requires player to knowingly assume risks of infection and consequences thereof, requires mandatory arbitration, confirms player’s decision to seek advice from his own legal counsel or waiver thereof, preserves scholarships and all other benefits provided by the school, and requires that the student-athlete’s (and, if applicable, their parent’s or guardian’s) signature be witnessed by a notary public.

“Member institutions manage the process of offering players the ability to play in Fall 2020 by signing a ‘liability waiver’ while preserving the rights of student-athletes who choose not to execute a waiver.”

At least one Big Ten school has left itself open to second guessing in terms of waiver consistency. Earlier this week, Penn State’s college newspaper reported that incoming students had to sign a “COVID-19 compact” as a condition of fall semester enrollment. "Students were required to read the acknowledgment and accept it, or else forfeit their ability to return or remain on campus,” the Daily Collegian reported.

After receiving considerable blowback, the school announced Thursday that it is amending the compact. “We have heard from some concerned with language requiring students to assume the risks of exposure to COVID-19,” Penn State said in a statement. “Others have misinterpreted the language of the Compact as a waiver of students’ rights, which was neither the case, nor the intent.”

Among the parents who said he would readily sign such a document waiving their school of liability if it let their sons play: Pablo Fields and Tim Ford.

“I think they’re grown men and should be able to choose for themselves,” Fields said. “I was a young man, 22 years old, when I became a police officer. There were risks every day walking the beat, and I chose to take them. It’s certainly OK to right a wrong, and the Big Ten can do that.”

Added Ford: “I would be 100% for the waiver. I think everything we do in life has risks, and in football there are known risks and unknown risks. But to take away a season based on what could happen, endnote even give the kids that did opt in a chance, was wrong. The kids and families had a chance to opt out, so conversely the others opted in.”

Among those who are not a fan of such a waiver liability ban: Blumenthal, the Senator who helped apply pressure to the NCAA to institute the ban in the first place.

"It epitomizes the current system, that the colleges are shifting the risk burden to the athletes and absolving themselves of responsibility,” Blumenthal told SI. “I think this suggestion shows how the system is deeply broken. Coercing athletes to sign away their rights is not only unfair but clearly unwise, because the schools are likely to be less cautious if they believe they bear no legal responsibility. They clearly have a moral responsibility that they’re attempting to shirk. Trust the doctors. I respect and admire the passion of players and coaches and their dedication but the risks are very formidable.

“I can’t believe they’re even thinking about it. It’s wrong."

Additional reporting for this story from Ross Dellenger.

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[michellelinkous]

‘This extra burden’

The woman lay in the emergency department, in terrible pain from a tear in her stomach.

She needed surgery to save her life.

But when the trauma surgeon introduced himself and explained the operation, she looked up and said, “I don’t really want a Black doctor. Is there anyone else?”

It was hardly the first encounter with racism for Charles Gibson, MD, a critical care surgeon at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.

He calmly replied: “Ma’am, I am the only surgeon on call. There is no such thing as a second opinion tonight,” he said. “I am happy to save your life, but it’s your choice.”

A half-hour later, the woman sent word that she wanted Dr. Gibson to perform the surgery.

Racism in health care doesn’t always rear its head in such an obvious way. Sometimes, it comes in the form of dismissive attitudes and skeptical questions directed at Black physicians, nurses and other members of the care team.

A Black doctor discusses a medical concern with a patient, only to be asked when the “real doctor” will get there.

A Black nurse arrives in a patient’s room and is expected to empty the waste basket or deliver food.

Often, racism comes from colleagues in inappropriate or disrespectful comments and actions—such as skeptical questions about their medical judgment or an insult about a natural hairstyle.

“I think the biggest thing for me is the microagressions—when there’s a clear sense that people don’t think you belong or you got to your position because of favoritism or that you are underqualified for your position,” said Lisa Lowery, MD. A pediatrician who specializes in adolescent medicine, she also serves as assistant dean for diversity at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Racism reverberates throughout the community, dogging the footsteps of Black medical professionals as they shop, drive, play and simply go about their daily lives.

“There’s this stress that we carry with us as we navigate our lives,” Dr. Lowery said. “When people subtly or not-so-subtly make you feel ‘less than,’ that’s an extra burden that we deal with.”

They learn to compartmentalize their feelings at work, so they can focus on their mission—caring for patients.

When Dr. Gibson performed surgery on the woman who didn’t want a Black doctor, he gave her the best care possible.

“I don’t judge people based on their beliefs,” he said. “If you come in to the hospital, I will give you the same care that I would give to my own mother, because that’s the oath I took—to take care of all my patients the same way.”

“We’re always going to do what’s right for our patients,” Dr. Lowery agreed. “That’s why we do what we do.”

But encounters with racism—the overt and the subtle—take a physical and emotional toll on Black health care professionals. After devoting years to education and developing their skills, dedicating their lives to saving lives, they can be dismissed at a glance because of the color of their skin.

The impact is felt especially keenly these days. As they battle on the front lines against the COVID-19 pandemic, the video of George Floyd dying beneath the knee of a police officer provides a painful reminder of racial inequality and injustice in America.

You do feel you have to work a little bit harder.

Kenyatta Curry Registered nurse

Kandace Ward, a physician assistant, feels a painful disconnect from her white colleagues each time she returns to work emotionally devastated by the release of a video showing the violent and unjust death of a Black person, like Floyd.

“Everyone else is in the hallway, merrily asking me, ‘Hey, Kandace, how are you doing?’ And I am hurting on the inside because I just saw another reflection of the systemic oppression of people who look like me.”

But she recalled lessons learned from her grandparents—talk of racism makes others uncomfortable.

In the past, she said, “I put on my big-girl pants and smiled. I was not being honest about how truly and repetitively heartbroken I was.”

Building bridges

The disease of systemic racism has festered for a long time, and no one is suggesting a quick cure. But a treatment plan must come from all quarters of society, including those who are white.

“We can’t solve inequity if we only call to the table the people who are experiencing inequity,” Kenyatta Curry said. “If we want to get this done, we need all hands on deck.”

In her 23 years as a registered nurse, Curry often is the only person of color on a medical team.

“You do feel you have to work a little bit harder,” she said. “Because you often feel like a sore thumb.”

Curry’s sense of mission helps her cope with racism on the job. Along with dispensing compassion and medical care, she hopes to bridge the racial divide and defeat harmful stereotypes.

“When you see nurses who look a little bit different than you, it’s OK,” Curry said. “Because we care. That’s why we are here. We want to try and save the day for everyone.”

Supportive co-workers can make a world of difference, she said.

That’s the case in her current position, in the Spectrum Health Limb Care and Wound Healing Clinic.

“I work with a phenomenal team. When those issues come up, whether it’s racism or sexism, we are not going to sweep it under the rug,” she said. “We are going to talk about the big elephant in the room, and we are going to deal with it before it grows out of control.”

Erica Michiels, MD, a white physician, compares issues with racism to violence against women. Women can’t change cultural standards for men’s behavior on their own.

“It takes men and women together to solve the problem,” she said.

Likewise, to right the wrongs of racism, “white people have to be part of the solution,” said Dr. Michiels, an emergency medicine specialist at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

“How can we say to people who have been treated inequitably for hundreds of years, ‘OK, now this is your problem. You have to solve it’? We have to get everyone to the table to solve this problem.”

Nastaciea Robert, Spectrum Health’s director of contact center services, recalls an uncomfortable encounter with a white co-worker.

When Robert wore a new dress one day, the other woman complimented her enthusiastically. But she quickly added an insult—making it clear that while she liked the dress, she did not approve of Robert’s natural hairstyle.

Robert responded with education, explaining to the woman the cultural importance of hair in the Black and brown community.

But she added, “It was pretty traumatic at first. It really felt like she was trying to suppress my identity.”

When situations like that occur, allies can help by speaking out, she said, so a person of color does not have to take a stand alone.

“What would be extremely helpful is really being courageous. Speak the unpopular truth. Stand against it,” she said. “If it’s in your gut and you know it doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t sound right, even if it doesn’t look right, it’s likely not right.”

But such open discussions about race and racism make many white people uncomfortable.

An awkward conversation

Kendall Hamilton, MD, waited for his 2 p.m. appointment, a man with a bad knee injury. From his notes, he knew the man would need surgery and pain medication.

When 20 minutes passed and the patient still hadn’t arrived, he asked the athletic trainers in the office if the appointment had been canceled.

They just said, “Don’t worry about it,” Dr. Hamilton recalled.

But he did worry. He felt a responsibility to make sure his patient received help in a timely manner.

After some back-and-forth questions and vague answers, Dr. Hamilton learned what happened. When the patient arrived at the office, he looked at an informational card about Dr. Hamilton, which included his background and a photo.

He told the athletic trainer: “I’m sorry. I’m a racist. I will not see a Black doctor.”

The trainer explained that Dr. Hamilton is a highly qualified surgeon trained in orthopedic sports medicine. His resume includes work as a team physician for the Houston Astros and NASA. He performs about 600 surgeries a year.

Still, the man refused to see him, wanting to instead wait to see one of his white colleagues.

Dr. Hamilton believes his team tried to shield him from the patient’s racist attitude because they didn’t want to hurt his feelings. And they felt uncomfortable talking about it.

“They had never seen racism happen like that,” he said.

But brushing the issue aside only allows racism to go unchallenged.

He told the team members: “We are not going to accept discrimination. We are not going to accept prejudice in any of its forms.”

Will we ever get rid of racism? No, we are human. But we can make this a more welcoming society.

Dr. Lisa Lowery

Dr. Hamilton contacted Spectrum Health leadership and legal experts to clarify Spectrum Health’s policy protecting employees from discrimination.

Team members then informed the patient he could not choose his doctor by race. And the man left the office.

Dr. Hamilton also arranged for the staff to receive training on how to handle similar situations in the future.

Three years later, Dr. Hamilton said, “I know if I would encounter a situation like that, I would not have to initiate the support I need. I know our organization would step up and step in.

“We have a long way to go, don’t get me wrong. But now we have made a stand.”

Followed in a store

When Candace Smith-King, MD, puts on her white coat and walks through the halls of Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, she feels respected—as a pediatrician and as Spectrum Health’s vice president of academic affairs.

“But the minute I leave the hospital, the respect is gone,” she said.

Dr. Smith-King, who has four children, recently shopped at a local store for treats for her child’s birthday party. As she went through the aisles with a basket of trinkets, she realized she was being followed. Clearly, security suspected her of shoplifting.

“It kind of broke my heart,” she said. “But I didn’t want to let (my kids) know that I was being followed around.”

Encounters like that make her wonder how the community views her and other Black women.

“Do they just assume I am a single Black woman with multiple kids who can’t afford to take care of them?” she asked. “Because I feel that’s the lens (with which) the media portrays Black women.”

She tries to keep calm, not just for her kids, but to avoid playing into the stereotype of “an angry Black woman.” But keeping a lid on emotions only exacerbates the stress caused by stereotypes and negative assumptions.

“The stress of always having to feel like I am representing me and my race is heavy,” she said. “You have good and bad people in all shapes and colors. But negative things are connected to Black people in a way that they are not with other races.”

Chronic stress affects health. A long-term increase in stress hormones, such as cortisol, is linked to high blood pressure, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, as well as mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

And Dr. Smith-King believes the stress caused by racism contributes to health conditions that disproportionately affect the Black community.

“There is no (medical) code for racism, but you can’t tell me that high blood pressure and stressful chronic conditions don’t have something to do with the pressure I feel being Black every day, that is boiling in my blood all the time,” she said.

That only intensifies when traumatic incidents occur, such as the killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“Every Black person is wondering, when is this going to be me?” Dr. Smith-King said. “When is this going to be my son? When will this be my daughter? My husband?”

In the outcry over Floyd’s death, in the diversity seen in the marches held around the country, Dr. Smith-King sees a growing awareness in the general population about racial injustice and a willingness to work toward solutions.

In conversations with white friends, she sees them connecting the dots—from the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and segregation to the war on drugs and racial disparity in the criminal justice system—and how it all adds up to the disease of systemic racism.

“It’s almost like an awakening to the history of our country,” she said.

Why did Floyd’s death, rather than the others that came before, become that catalyst for change? Dr. Smith-King believes timing may have played a role. With the COVID-19 pandemic, society slowed down, people stayed home and pulled closer together, protecting loved ones from an unknown and highly contagious virus.

“I think the pandemic allowed us to feel the pain,” she said. “It allowed people to be vulnerable and to be open.”

Dr. Smith-King grew up in Grand Rapids and has a wide network of support, including her parents, friends and her church community. But she understands how difficult it can be for medical professionals new to the West Michigan area.

As a community, she said, “We need to be more welcoming and diverse.”

Diversity in health care

Nationwide, Black doctors are underrepresented in medicine. They account for 13%  of the population, but only 5% of physicians, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The number of Black doctors has increased in recent years, with most of the gains made by Black women, Dr. Smith-King said.

In 1978, there were 542 black male students enrolled in MD-granting medical schools. That number dropped to 515 in 2014, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports.

“In 2020, we are only up to 550,” said Dr. Smith-King.

And yet diversifying the health care workforce is crucial to creating trust with patients, solving racial and ethnic disparities in health and a healthier population in general, Dr. Michiels shared.

“There is great evidence that a diverse workforce produces better health care results than a non-diverse workforce,” she said. “Not only do you deliver a better product, but you deliver it at a lower cost.”

There is a history of racism in medicine, of Black people not being treated fairly.

Dr. Renee (Constance) Jordan

Hankondo Sibalwa, a nurse who immigrated from Zambia, once worked as a licensed practical nurse in a pediatric clinic—and was the only Black male health care provider on staff.

One day, a mother asked him to speak to her son, an African-American teenager, about the importance of education. Sibalwa advised the young man to go to Grand Rapids Community College after high school.

“Check it out. See if it’s for you,” he said.

A few years later, Sibalwa attended GRCC himself, studying to become a registered nurse. As he walked across campus one day, a young man called out to him. It was the teenager Sibalwa had advised several years earlier.

“I’m here because of you,” the young man said.

Sibalwa’s words carried weight, in part because his teenage patient could see him as a role model. That one example underscores the need for diversity in a health care workforce that matches the diversity of the community, he said.

“There is a history of racism in medicine, of Black people not being treated fairly,” said Renee (Constance) Jordan, MD, a pediatrician who just completed a fellowship at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Numerous studies have documented racial bias in medicine that affects the medical treatments received by people of color, reports the National Academy of Medicine.

When Dr. Jordan walks into a hospital room to care for a Black child, she often sees surprise on the faces of the child and parents.

“Their eyes light up,” she said. “Sometimes there’s even tears or a huge sigh of relief.”

She can see them thinking, “Is this real? Is a doctor who looks like me taking care of me?”

She understands their reaction. At times, she has seen the concerns of Black patients dismissed by medical staff.

In the emergency department, she once saw a mother who pushed for answers about her daughter’s symptoms be dismissed by other staff as an “angry Black woman.”

And yet when Dr. Jordan met with the woman and listened to her concerns, the woman’s anger turned to tears.

As Dr. Jordan discussed the medical issue in detail with the mother, she uncovered concerns for a worsening diagnosis. She arranged for urgent specialty follow-up care that the girl needed.

Dr. Jordan made a connection with the woman when her white colleagues could not.

“To be fair, (the mom) was a little feisty,” Dr. Jordan said. “And one reason she let her guard down was because I looked like her.”

Still, she said, the incident left her shaken, because she could see cultural bias at work.

“For another mom, they might say, ‘She’s having the worst day of her life.’ There is more patience to work through that,” she said. “I think a lot of times, Black moms get written off.”

The incident did lead to positive change.

Dr. Jordan contacted Dr. Smith-King, who at the time was the program director for her residency. Together, they brought the issue to Dr. Michiels, co-director of the emergency department.

“She was amazing, wonderful,” Dr. Jordan said. “She was the perfect ally. She asked, ‘What can we do as an emergency department to be more culturally competent?'”

Recruit and support

Jeri Kessenich, MD, sees a growing recognition in health care of the need to diversify the medical team—and to support doctors and other medical professionals of color.

As director of the pediatric hospital medicine fellowship, she particularly worries about how racism and microagressions affect interns, residents and fellows. She hears their stories about minority physicians being dismissed and overlooked, as patients or families ask to see a “real doctor.”

It adds extra stress to what already is a stressful time for new doctors, as they learn vast amounts of academic material, how to relate to patients and how to navigate the hospital system.

As a white physician, she has learned she can play a role in setting them up for success. She makes clear to patients and families that the residents are physicians and respected members of their medical care team.

It’s important to send the message: “We have people of different genders, ages, races and cultural beliefs, and we put our faith in all of them as team members,” she said.

That will require a genuine openness, understanding and respect from the medical team—and not just surface-level politeness, Dr. Lowery said.

“There is this culture that is often called ‘West Michigan nice.’ I would call it ‘West Michigan passive-aggressive,'” she said.

In the broader community, Dr. Kessenich believes white people must speak out against racism.

“We need to be more vocal about being anti-racist,” she said. “We can have influence in our community and as leaders of our own families. Silence, I think, means we condone what is going on.”

Making strides

In her leadership role, Dr. Smith-King often is the only person of color at the table for leadership meetings. But that is changing, she said.

“There are a lot of efforts being put in place at Spectrum Health—and I think at a lot of other institutions across the country—to support people of color and to diversify (leadership),” she said.

“There are people I can lean on who look like me, who can mentor me, which is one of the blessings of being at an institution that is trying to make a difference.”

Diversifying leadership can have an impact throughout the organization.

Erika Stevenson, a medical assistant, recalls an unsettling experience when she worked in a hospital clinic.

For years, she enjoyed a warm relationship with patients and their families, as well as a good rapport with colleagues at work. But after a physician cited her for being “stand-offish,” she felt she came under intense scrutiny.

She hesitated to say for certain that it was because of racism. But she could not understand why she was constantly criticized for minor issues—ones that were never raised with her white colleagues.

“I felt like I was on pins and needles every day,” she said. “I felt like nobody was on my side.”

It helped to share her concerns with two Black physicians, Dr. Smith-King and Dr. Lowery, and to have their support.

“It definitely made me more comfortable having Dr. Lowery or Dr. Smith-King present during any discussions with my (manager),” Stevenson said.

Stevenson, who has since taken a new position in Sleep Medicine, praised the open way Spectrum Health addressed racism during a “Day of Understanding” on June 19. She found encouragement in the open discussions about race and equity.

“Our office announced the doors were open if any of us had a concern we wanted to talk about,” she said. “I think that was a great thing.”

For Dr. Lowery, the visible and vocal support that has emerged in recent weeks makes her “optimistically hopeful.”

“Will we ever get rid of racism? No, we are human,” she said. “But we can make this a more welcoming society.”

To make that happen requires commitment to change—and to keep values of diversity, equity and inclusion top of mind, said Alejandro Quiroga, MD, Spectrum Health’s senior vice president for population health.

“We need to be vigilant,” he said. “We have to hold each other accountable, that we deem this important and we keep working on this.”

‘This extra burden’ published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.tumblr.com/

[crstapor]

‘Lush’: Notes for an Autobiography - The End of Ford Connally 2020

It all started in early March. My health-scare with the seizure. The Connally’s saving the truck from the side of the road; sitting with me over two hours waiting on the doctors to return. When they did, the learned gentleman who I only ever met for five minutes, told me that they could find nothing wrong with me. That I should see a neurologist, get some expert advice and more tests. As I was sitting in piss-soaked jeans the entire time I agreed immediately - anything to get me home and in fresh clothes!

Now, had I not lost my job, and with it my health insurance, I might very well have gone and seen the neurologist. I did though (oh, right - all of this during Covid-19). For whatever reason, my appointment with the neurologist was set for May (two whole months after the incident in question), and while by that time I still had access to my Docketly benefits, they were expiring a few weeks after that visit. I chose not to go. Why? I felt then as I do now that the initial consultation would be just that, the doctor would ask some questions, try to get info about my ancestry, habits, etc., and after that interview would set another appointment where actual physical tests would occur. I concluded that any such subsequent visit would transpire after I had lost my benefits, and as such, would be unaffordable for me. I did end up losing my benefits, so at least, on that score, I was correct.

Of further note, anecdotal as it may be, I had spoken with a number of friends about the medical incident in question. One of them told me that when a younger man he had gone through a similar situation. Over the course of five years and sixteen thousand dollars, he had finally been told by a doctor not to wear a tie as answer to his very rare, occasional, seizure spells. It is also true that others advocated an immediate visit, though, when informed of the financial ramifications therein, became more philosophical in their advice. All told, of the people I spoke with about this incident, only one maintained a hard-line on the neurologist, other factors be damned - Connally. At any rate, it has been my own personal experience that modern medicine, here in the States, is a shell-game of initial consultations, tests, specialist visits, more consultations, more tests, until a very definite conclusion is arrived at at what is certainly not wrong with you - not that they know what is. It is true I don’t trust the current medical field here in the USA: nothing more than a still legal cartel that charges devastating prices for half-answers and bad pills. Not my cuppa, thanks!

So I call Connally the day after my scheduled visit with the neurologist. A beauty, I wanted to know if he was up for a bike ride. Maybe even bring the brat. He gets right to the point. Wants to know how my visit went. I told him I didn’t go, tried to explain myself when he delivers the ultimatum: don’t call me again until you go see the doctor. Understanding his position I hung up. There was nothing left to say. Plus? It was a beautiful day. Think I got about twenty miles on the greenway after.

A few weeks pass where we don’t communicate. One night, in my cups and feeling sore about the whole situation - because, and not to put too fine a point on it, but from where I was sitting Connally was not being fair in his assessment of the facts on the ground: was willfully ignoring any factor or aspect involving my financial reality with what he was asking me to do - I wrote him an email. A polite, if stoic, attempt to find some common ground on which we could try again negotiations, mediation, some rapport to bridge the impasse. No reply.

Another week or so, I tried again. The second email was more forceful, it still sought diplomacy. No answer. Then some texts, which finally garnered a response from Betty (nothing directly from Connally since the phone call). She tells me that Ford is emotionally hurt that I hung up on him. That he doesn’t have any more time in his life to care about people that don’t care about their own personal health (!!!). That he’s hurt, but he sees this as an ending. Ahem -

He’s hurt, and sees this as an ending …

Ok. Let’s pretend that Ford is actually the kind of guy who would get emotionally damaged after someone hung up on him (which only happened because Ford, in his infinite wisdom, proffered an ultimatum instead of an ear, or at the very least conversation, perhaps I digress … but, no, it is a funny thought, isn’t it? The hegemonic dictator getting all teary-eyed because the ‘plebes’ have blatantly ignored his latest decree; “Why won’t they accept my irrational ultimatums? Why don’t they see that my way is always correct all other considerations be damned! Why do they humiliate me by not outright accepting my tyranny? Why must they hurt me so!?!”). I don’t personally believe that any farther than I can throw a Buick, but let’s be diplomatic: say he was genuinely emotionally eviscerated by my wanton disregard for his desire to continue shoving unreasonable and unenforceable ultimatums down my throat. Fine. If that is the case, I apologize (and did, such as it was, via text in response to Betty). Hey, I’ve been a fool for bigger things.

Secondly, the part about my not caring about my own personal health? Where to even begin … I mean - wow … just … wow. Now, to my nose, the stink of privilege is so infused in this line of reasoning that I can’t see past the bourgeois miasma or the socialist myopia. I mean, let them eat cake I guess? I don’t want to get too far afield here, though isn’t it interesting how one’s social class predicts behavior more than does lifelong friendships? If we cared to listen, that would tell us a lot … in any case, as I made plain to both Connally’s in my first email on the matter, if it was as simple as walking down to sickbay and having Dr. Crusher run some scans I would have already done so. At issue for me is not whether to seek medical care, it is how do I afford it. Two drastically different issues, no? To me they certainly are, and, to you, dear reader, they might seem so as well … what can we make of those who choose not to understand this obvious difference? I honestly can not say …

And so an ending! A friendship of almost thirty years squashed. And why? Well … I have put forward the facts as I know them. Still I don’t have an answer. A few days passed. I didn’t dwell on it, figuring that perhaps the vagaries of time would eventually prove a salve to the disjunct. Which would have been the end of it. Until I bought a box of chardonnay.

Drinking on that box of chardonnay one night last week I blacked out. Woke in the morning to find that I had sent a number of texts to Betty and her boy over the preceding night. Having deleted the texts while still drunk, I have no recollection of them, can’t comment. Sure they were not great. Sure they were probably pretty shitty. Connally’s thought so too. Betty sent me a few nasty replies, Ford told me not to contact him or his family again. Now that’s an ending, what!

…

No. I’m not happy about the way it ended. And I would have apologized about that, but I have been asked not to contact the Connally’s again and mean to abide by that request. Sure, nothing much good happens when I get black-out drunk. Need to work on that. Even so, there is a certain balancing of the forces at play in those actions by my nighttime, ecstatic alter-ego. A certain justice enforced on the willful obstructions emplaced by an implacable ideological position. And so a friendship ends.

Just another feather in Covid’s cap. Because it can not but help be noticed that had Covid not happened I would not have lost my job, which means I would still have health insurance, which means I could have gone and seen the neurologist, which means Connally’s desires would have been met and fulfilled, and as such, he would not have had any reason to be unreasonable. Right. Thanks Covid.

And thank you, Mr. Connally. We had a good ride. But that ride is over. Peace be, sir, to you and yours. See you, space cowboy …

[ladystylestores]

Sachin & Babi Launch The Good Kloth Co. – WWD

https://pmcwwd.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1800×780.jpeg?w=640&h=415&crop=1

For Sachin and Babi Ahluwalia, founders of New York-based luxury fashion label Sachin & Babi, the coronavirus crisis has spawned an opportunity.

The married couple is launching The Good Kloth Company, a venture for personal protective equipment, performance workwear uniforms and casual fashion.

Good Kloth will provide gloves, masks, scrubs and uniforms for the medical, transportation, delivery, logistics, manufacturing, hospitality and retail industries, as well as a line of loungewear and basic essentials for consumers including sweatshirts, joggers and T-shirts.

The apparel and accessories in the Good Kloth lines will incorporate an antimicrobial fabric coating developed by a Swiss chemical company that typically develops surface applications for performance-based fabrics. The specially treated products are washable, reusable and sustainable.

The Good Kloth mask has soft jersey ear loops, a contoured fit for less gapping and is triple-layered in cotton/polyester. 

According to chief executive officer Sachin Ahluwalia, the technology, known as ​BioBloX​, is proprietary and has active ingredients registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other global regulatory bodies​. It creates a surface coating that when applied to fabrics annihilates harmful micro-organisms on contact.

“In two to five minutes, it kills certain virus and bacteria on contact, like an influenza, which will not stick to the fabric,” he said.

“Once we were introduced to this groundbreaking technology, we immediately applied our focus to health-care workers, realizing how much they could benefit from it. However, we then began to think of so many other people who get up, go out and continue their daily lives through this pandemic. This led us to expand upon the initial concept and broaden the scope of our vision. Good Kloth has a unique solution to enable, empower and protect people in what is now our new normal,” said Ahluwalia. “We want to be a brand that helps communities reemerge with confidence, not fear.”

He made clear that BioBloX is not in itself a shield against COVID-19. “We were not necessarily looking for a silver bullet, but it creates an added layer of protection” to the personal protection equipment and apparel. “Our primary focus will always be health and hygiene,” he said. “Historically, fabric and textile innovation have intentionally focused on enhancing an already healthy body rather than providing protection as a proactive measure.”

He said he and his wife were motivated to create the antimicrobial, socially responsible Good Kloth Company when the pandemic-induced “new normal” led to greater health awareness and concerns over contagions globally.

Shifting consumer shopping patterns and the need to cater to a larger audience and a different lifestyle at lower price points were also important factors for the business. The Sachin & Babi collection, considered “accessible luxury,” emphasizes India-inspired embroidery, long dresses, special occasion gowns, bridal and accessories. It’s a cluster of categories that would be challenged given the world’s health crisis and people sheltering in.

“The challenges are where you would expect,” said Ahluwalia, when asked how his company was faring. “Trends have acutely shifted from gala gowns to soft silhouettes for at-home entertaining. Weddings are not canceled, just postponed, and they’re smaller affairs. So accessible prices with more versatile aesthetics is what we are focusing on.” He said the company relaunched its web site with an offering that’s less dressy than in the past.

“We are not changing who we are, but the definition of eveningwear is changing,” said Ahluwalia. “People are scaling down things, though people are still getting married. Our bridal collection is doing very well.

“At no point back in March did I ever believe there would be the devastation we are seeing from this pandemic,” added Ahluwalia. “But later, after having conversations with the people in my factories, talking with my father and mother who run my factory in Mumbai, we thought, ‘how do we bring us into a safer environment.’ One of the issues in Mumbai is that all my workforce uses public transportation,” which is crowded. There are 250 workers at the family-owned Mumbai factory, which enables the company to control the entire design and production process and eliminate middlemen.

Sachin & Babi also utilizes a 4,000-worker factory in Vietnam, where the majority of Good Kloth is being produced, a country where bicycles and mopeds are the main form of transportation.

Ahluwalia expresses awe and gratitude for front-line workers at medical facilities, groceries, pharmacies and other essential businesses and services in the U.S. “It has amazed us how at no point during the pandemic did the country really stop running,” he said. “Our grocery stores here stayed opened. Delivery people continue to do their jobs.”

Sachin and Babi Ahluwalia met during their first semester at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Sachin studied fashion and Babi studied textiles. They bonded over their ambitions and upbringing in New Delhi, India. Each arrived in the U.S. about 25 years ago to study at FIT and became U.S. citizens in 2007. They built a design and embroidery business, working behind the scenes for Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier and Manolo Blahnik, among others, before launching their own collection 10 years ago.

The upcoming Good Kloth casual line encompasses “things that we wear every single day,” said Sachin Ahluwalia. The object is to sell the line at stores such Bloomingdale’s and Anthropologie, and offer a “clean, tailored look in pale, neutral and earth tones at contemporary price points.”

Good Kloth will start production in the next 60 days and is in distribution talks in the medical and fashion fields. “At the moment we are not moving forward as a dot-com business. It’s strictly b-to-b,” said Ahluwalia.

He expects Good Kloth merchandise for hospitals and businesses to be shipped for fourth-quarter delivery, while the consumer line is being prepared for a spring 2021 delivery and will be shown to retailers in the next 30 days.

The antimicrobial coating creates “absolutely no change in the texture of the fabric. It does not cause any irritation to the skin,” said Ahluwalia. “There’s almost zero evidence of any change of texture and there’s no change in the weight of the fabric. It can be applied to woven or nonwoven fabrics.”

Ahluwalia said the cost of the antimicrobial coating is “minimal, although it is there. We are trying to position ourselves very competitively, especially in the b-to-b space. It is critical for us to go to market with a competitive product. We believe this product and the antimicrobial application needs to available and accessible to every single person. This is not a premium product.

“In terms of the operations, we are using our current infrastructure, which has been in place for the last 20 years, including our creative team, globally integrated supply chain and extensive manufacturing network. We also have a group of advisors on scientific and legal aspects helping us understand the environmental protection regulations and claims that we can make. We’re very careful on the claims.”

Earlier this month, Sachin Ahluwalia was hit by a car while riding his bicycle in Midtown. He’s now sporting a large cast extending all the way up his thigh, but he says he’s OK and can focus on Good Kloth. “We need to bring life back to normal as much as we can,” he said. “Science needs to come to the forefront. I intend to take advantage of these smart people of science.”

The Good Kloth protective gloves. 

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