Why I joined the AllClear team
“Scammed. Again!” It was already the second time that I had gotten scammed; first time receiving a box of metal parts instead of N95 masks, and this time not receiving the Lysol Disinfectant Spray I had purchased for $70 on eBay. With a wife in healthcare, we needed to prepare to protect the family against the COVID-19 she was undoubtedly going to bring home.
Out of desperation, I reached out to my friends via SMS, Facebook and my Jibe (my former employer) “alumni” Slack for leads on additional PPE and disinfectant products. The response was overwhelming. We received multiple leads for sources and actual donations of products from close friends as well as people who I had lost contact with for years before this crisis. It was during this frantic search to prepare my family that an opportunity to contribute to a larger cause presented itself.
On Jibe Slack, I learned of a grassroots, COVID-19 technology project called AllClear started by Boris, Matt and Joe. What struck me about AllClear was how simple but powerful the goal was — to smartly present a consolidated view of over 8,000 testing COVID-19 testing sites in America. All of my friends, friends of family, and neighbors — all have described the disjointed and inefficient methods of discovering testing sites. Googling is not precise enough and often leads you to a site where you need to determine if you qualify for testing. Even with telehealth, reaching your provider to get tested is very difficult.
Excited to contribute to a larger cause (not that my family is not important), I immediately volunteered my services for the AllClear project. Boris and Matt said they could definitely use my organization skills to push this project forward. Every night, after my day job was done, I slid into a familiar role with familiar faces, helping engineers work through their impediments during our nightly standup, just like old times.
The whole month of March was a blur for me, as it was for many in NYC. Our schools quickly pivoted to distance learning; our spring break plans got changed, then canceled; working remotely became mandatory at IBM. We pivoted our daughter’s seventh birthday party three times as the restrictions became tighter and tighter in the city, until it became a Zoom party with her closest friends and a homemade cake.
For my wife Haejin, a cancer surgeon at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, the changes were even more dramatic. As the pandemic rose in severity, her institution deemed her procedures elective — can you imagine a world where your cancer surgery is not urgent and essential?! — so that she and her colleagues could join the countless others already on the front-line of our overwhelmed healthcare system. Then there was our serious conversation on a Sunday early in the pandemic on whether she should separate from the rest of the family to prevent the spread of the disease (Ultimately we decided to stay together, mainly for my mental health). Our nightly welcome-home kiss was replaced by a complex, multi-step tango to sanitize her belongings and keep our children distanced while she showers away the day or night shift in the COVID-19 infested hospital.
Haejin says that my affinity for zombie apocalypse movies and organization skills have uniquely prepared me for this moment. Yes, it has! And now, the regular, spontaneous celebration of healthcare professionals that erupts at 7pm every night in NYC reminds me, not only give my wife a kiss, but to get ready for the nightly AllClear standup.
