But I don’t today ‘cause I didn’t watch it.

It’s 2021 though. So even though I did not watch the Super Spreader Event Bowl, I heard about it:

  • Amanda Gorman first poet to perform there (which I already told you about), and
  • H.E.R. performed (quick note that this is a H.E.R stan account. She is young and gifted. You know the rest, right?)

I also heard they had an ICU nurse manager did the coin toss and girl, I guess. I mean if people wanna act like we’re  not in the middle of a whole pandemonium because science is not going to get in the way of people getting together to watch a sport that is prioritizing profits over people that’s cool and I’m sorry that your team lost because I’m just assuming that NOBODY IS ROOTING TO TOM BRADY EVER, even though he’s no longer a NE Patriot and that you watched the game AT HOME with people who live in your house and nobody else. (Not sorry if you thought I was going to say something else. I work in a damn hospital for f*ck’s sake.) I’m SURE that in 10-14 days we’ll hear about a COVID surge in Tallahassee. OR WILL WE?

ANYWAY. The Brat has me re-watching Grey’s Anatomy. Which I stopped watching because WHO HAS THE TIME?! But it turns out I do, because what else am I doing in the middle of a palindrome? Certainly not planning out a fact like I said I would JUST THIS PAST FRIDAY. Nope. I am still vibing my way through Black History Month. BUT! Luckily, I just got finished watching an episode of Grey’s where the former Chief of Surgery, Charles Webber (who is former ‘cause he stepped down ‘cause this is a TV show, after all) did a lecture talmbout when he was a young warthog intern. He was the very first black surgical intern, and boy oh boy was his attending racist something. During this same Lecture series, Amanda Bailey, an Attending Physician, talked about her experience when she first came to Seattle Grace as an intern and how she went off on her attending because she’d figured out what was wrong with the patient and Dr. Webber (the CURRENT Chief) pulled her into his office and told her to look scared while he pretended to fuss at her to make the attending feel better and *RIGHT THEN* it clicked that that was the point that he probably decided to mentor this very short, black woman intern who finally stopped being afraid to speak up because in a WAYYY earlier episode he told her that the plan was always for HER to take his place as the Chief of Surgery when he stepped down. And so it goes. The “First Black” anything, helps usher in the next Black. And even though ALL of this is a world of make-believe, Doctor Harold Amos is a real person who inspired  hundreds of Black people to become doctors.

Harold Amos, born in 1918 to a mother who was adopted and educated by a Quaker family. And because of this, the Amos family always received a lot of books, including a biography of Louis Pasteur. He graduated in 1936 at the top of his High School class and went on to attend Springfield College in Massachusetts on a full academic scholarship, which was damn near unheard of for an African American. He graduated in 1941 with a degree in chemistry. Then was drafted into the army and was eventually discharged in 1946. That fall, he enrolled in Biological Sciences program at Harvard medical School earning his Master’s degree and in 1952, earned his PhD. And in 1954, Amos joined Harvard Medical School Faculty as a teacher and the first Black microbiologist and went on to become the first Black Chair of the bacteriology in 1968. Harold made various high profile discoveries in his discipline including the finding of the 5-methylcytosine in the E. coli RNA and spearheading research into the use of bacterial RNA to program the synthesis of higher cell proteins, insulin etc.

***An aside: isn’t it interesting how science also tends to build on things? For instance, Dr Amos researched the use of bacterial RNA to program the synthesis of higher cell proteins and then Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a Black virologist, helped develop an mRNA vaccine (Moderna) that tricks your body into  triggering an immune response so that your body produces antibodies for an infection it never had! If we were talking about Black History…and we are…I’d say this is exactly what it’s about: Your work inspiring someone else to go farther.

So back to my fact: Harold was a well-respected educator and often cited teaching as one of his many passions. He was well known as an inviting and welcoming mentor to both students and junior faculty members, and went on to receive many awards throughout his career including: the first Charles Drew World Medical Prize from Harvard University in 1989, an Honoris Causa doctoral degree from Harvard University in 1996, the National Academy of Science’ highest honor, the Public Welfare Medal in 1995, and a diversity award at Harvard named after him.

And here we are. Some fake doctors mixed in with some real doctors AND A VERY REAL, SAFE VACCINE. Okay. I’m climbing down off my soapbox. FOR NOW.

HAPPY MONDAY.