Cannonball Vaccine Run
April 15, 2021 11:37 AM Subscribe
Tarik Khan has 10 vials of leftover COVID vaccine and six hours before they expire. Can he get them all to his list of homebound residents while crisscrossing Philadelphia, dodging rush hour traffic, and observing them for 15 minutes each before returning home to his cat Theodore? Text, photo, and video from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
I thought this was going to be a traveling salesman joke, but yes, this is actually an amazing story.
Or a bittersweet story, in truth. Bitter that the system is resting on the shoulders of a dude with a list on his phone, sweet that a dude is willing to make a list on his phone and do the hard work to assist overlooked people.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:40 PM on April 15, 2021 [7 favorites]
Or a bittersweet story, in truth. Bitter that the system is resting on the shoulders of a dude with a list on his phone, sweet that a dude is willing to make a list on his phone and do the hard work to assist overlooked people.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:40 PM on April 15, 2021 [7 favorites]
Welp. Apparently even my cold, black heart can still feel.
posted by that's candlepin at 1:07 PM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by that's candlepin at 1:07 PM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Philly has some high highs to go along with the low lows, so apparently I can miss living there juuuuuust a little.
posted by supercres at 1:10 PM on April 15, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by supercres at 1:10 PM on April 15, 2021 [4 favorites]
Incredibly moving and heroic story. Thank you for sharing.
posted by latkes at 2:54 PM on April 15, 2021
posted by latkes at 2:54 PM on April 15, 2021
This reminds me of a happier version of the story of Houston doctor Hasan Gokal.
In late December he was fired from his job and charged with theft after distributing about-to-expire doses to his wife and acquaintances after trying and failing to find other eligible recipeints, rather than let them go to waste.
Although his criminal charges were tossed out by a judge and he was cleared of wrongdoing by the Texas Medical Board the Harris County DA is still pursuing Grand Jury proceedings against him and he is still without a job.
posted by Reverend John at 3:00 PM on April 15, 2021 [9 favorites]
In late December he was fired from his job and charged with theft after distributing about-to-expire doses to his wife and acquaintances after trying and failing to find other eligible recipeints, rather than let them go to waste.
Although his criminal charges were tossed out by a judge and he was cleared of wrongdoing by the Texas Medical Board the Harris County DA is still pursuing Grand Jury proceedings against him and he is still without a job.
posted by Reverend John at 3:00 PM on April 15, 2021 [9 favorites]
The QA pedant in me feels the desire to point out that stuff like vaccines don't magically become ineffective/ useless the moment the clock passes the expiration date.
Determining expiration dates is actually fairly complicated thing that, in this case, wasn't done by retrospective study but likely through modeling using accelerated conditions.
OTOH, depending on the environment of transport, if adverse, it could still be rendered ineffective even if there were hours left on the expiration clock.
posted by porpoise at 3:21 PM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Determining expiration dates is actually fairly complicated thing that, in this case, wasn't done by retrospective study but likely through modeling using accelerated conditions.
OTOH, depending on the environment of transport, if adverse, it could still be rendered ineffective even if there were hours left on the expiration clock.
posted by porpoise at 3:21 PM on April 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Thanks so much for this post. I wish for a better-structured world where people don't have to work so hard, but god damned if I'm not thankful for allll the people out there working harder than they should have to. Bless those folks. May we all be inspired to do better.
posted by introp at 6:22 PM on April 15, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by introp at 6:22 PM on April 15, 2021 [4 favorites]
I like that I now have a case a can point to when introducing the idea of jury nullification that isn't horrible white supremacists.
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 8:28 PM on April 15, 2021
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 8:28 PM on April 15, 2021
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posted by gwint at 12:21 PM on April 15, 2021 [4 favorites]