Quick thread about vaccine distribution—personal story

Mom is in a high-risk category and is eligible to receive a vaccine. I’ve been busy in the ICU and honestly assumed she was signing up to get vaccinated because she’s a responsible, conscientious person.

1/

After days of meaning to call, I finally remembered at a time of day when we're both awake and asked, just to confirm because of course she’s on it, right?

Nope. She’s not signed up.

2/
I’m in Arizona right now, she’s home in California. I haven’t kept close tabs on what’s going on with vaccines there (I've been busy), so I ask her why not. She says she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do.

3/
Easy fix, I think! I'm a good daughter, I think. So I google “How to get COVID vaccine Santa Clara County”

This takes me to the County website. No big deal! I’ll get her the link in a sec, I think. I confirm she is eligible based on the current tier.

4/
Can’t schedule an appointment there. No problem—I’m sure they’ll tell us how to do it?

They say contact a healthcare provider. They then list several healthcare systems (not providers--I'm confused). Mom has Blue Cross Blue Shield. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Not on the list.

5/
Hmmmm….I’ll just go to the Blue Cross Blue Shield website. Surely, they’ll have information there, right? Wrong.

First of all, COVID is not even on their menu (on my mobile browser). So I tell Mom she should call her doctor.

6/
But I’m also thinking there’s no way this doctor is supposed to manage every single patient’s vaccine appointment, right? That makes no sense. And shouldn't someone have communicated something to the people who are eligible at this point??

So I keep digging.

7/
I scroll down on the BCBS website and find “COVID-19 Vaccines.” A-ha! This will be it. I mean, I’m on the website for her insurer, and this is the link for the vaccine. Done!

Nope.

8/
Their section on “When and where to get vaccinated” takes me to a site from which I can select the state. Remember that I started on the COUNTY website—the most local government resource available! Now I have to go to the state site. Fine.

9/
I click on the link, which takes me to the CDC. I select California from the menu. Maybe this will be helpful? I click on the “COVID-19 Vaccines” section. Wait for it…

Absolutely nothing about scheduling!

10/
I scroll down to the “Learn More” section because, well, I would like to learn more. Specifically, I would like to learn how to schedule my only mother, the one I worry about every day when I'm in the ICU caring for patients with COVID, FOR A VACCINE.

11/
Sadly, while the “Learn More” section has lots of information, it has nothing about scheduling a vaccine. I go back to the California Public Health website and see a link at the bottom to go to the California COVID-19 Updates page. I cross my fingers and click on that.

12/
I scroll down to “When, where, and how can I get a vaccine?” Soooo promising! I scroll through a bunch of generic information and get down to the “Questions and answers” section. I click on “How can I get the COVID-19 vaccination?”

13/
“Most Californians will be vaccinated at community vaccination sites, doctor’s offices, clinics, or pharmacies.”

🤦‍♀️

Seriously?

14/
I went back to BCBS, which has a link to check for in-network providers. Fortunately, some of the pharmacies in her town apparently have vaccines.

But who knows how one accesses those?

15/
That’s all I know for now. I gave up because I need to go to sleep so I can get up early and get back to the ICU.

I just wanted to share this because holy smokes how will we get 100 million vaccines delivered in 100 days if it’s this hard to figure it out??

16/
Btw Mom and I have 2 PhD’s and 1 MD between us (granted she hasn't put her cognitive power to the task yet, and I'm sleep deprived, but still!). And there may be a link on one of these sites I've missed, but really it SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD.

17/17
cc @ASlavitt @JoyAnnReid @MollyJongFast @DoctorYasmin @drjessigold @RoxanaDaneshjou @FutureDocs @DoctorsForBiden @alikhan28 @GavinNewsom

More from Health

1/16
Why do B12 and folate deficiencies lead to HUGE red blood cells?

And, if the issue is DNA synthesis, why are red blood cells (which don't have DNA) the key cell line affected?

For answers, we'll have to go back a few billion years.


2/
RNA came first. Then, ~3-4 billion years ago, DNA emerged.

Among their differences:
🔹RNA contains uracil
🔹DNA contains thymine

But why does DNA contains thymine (T) instead of uracil (U)?

https://t.co/XlxT6cLLXg


3/
🔑Cytosine (C) can undergo spontaneous deamination to uracil (U).

In the RNA world, this meant that U could appear intensionally or unintentionally. This is clearly problematic. How can you repair RNA when you can't tell if something is an error?

https://t.co/bIZGviHBUc


4/
DNA's use of T instead of U means that spontaneous C → U deamination can be corrected without worry that an intentional U is being removed.

DNA requires greater stability than RNA so the transition to a thymine-based structure was beneficial.

https://t.co/bIZGviHBUc


5/
Let's return to megaloblastic anemia secondary to B12 or folate deficiency.

When either is severely deficient deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP*) production is hindered. With less dTMP, DNA synthesis is abnormal.

[*Note: thymine is the base in dTMP]

https://t.co/AnDUtKkbZh
Now you know I love to sh-t in Harvard. But I also like accuracy. So I decided to go look at Harvard’s catalog to see its lack of military history that this article describes (they only teach history of pets it claims) and what I found shocked me! Shocked me! A thread: 1/


First off, Harvard students literally have multiple sections of military history that they can take listed. (It appears these ones are taught at MIT, so they might have to walk down the street for these) but... 2/


Say they want to stay on campus...they can only take numerous classes on war and diplomacy...3/


They have an entire class on Yalta. That’s right. An entire class on Yalta. 4/


But wait! There is more! They can take the British Empire, The Fall of the Roman Empire for those wanting traditional topics... 5/

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The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed