LongCovid Open Access Medically Peer Reviewed Help

In February 2022, New York Department of Health Consortium on Long Covid called for an urgently needed educational resource on Long Covid.

The Problem with this call to action?

The predicted timeline was years away: Awareness, funding, establishing teams and collaboration, proposals, and beginning the process. By the time answers arrive in this timeline, a child who is in 1st grade now, will be going into high school. But already, many children are experiencing long-lasting symptoms.

We don't have time to wait that long for answers when work is already impacted for 1 in 5.

WebMD reported on September 28, 2022, that "Long COVID is likely to cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars and will almost certainly affect multiple industries, from restaurants struggling to replace low-wage workers, to airlines scrambling to replace crew, to overwhelmed hospitals."

Local and Global

Long COVID is not just a U.S. Challenge. It is a global challenge that requires interdisciplinary innovation and action from medical to policymakers to workplaces providing accommodations not to lose talent.

This much-needed book gathers emerging peer-reviewed, published research. It makes science and research accessible and visible to multiple industries with scientific rigor and quick access to primary sources, explanatory videos, and first-hand accounts.

Managing 200 Symptoms

When the aftermath of a novel coronavirus can present upwards of 200 symptoms, all organ systems are involved. This book can also be seen as a launching point for medical professionals, researchers, and policymakers working on connecting the dots.

Even the most specialized medical professional can't have all the answers to respond to the aftermath of a novel virus. Because a novel virus makes everyone a novice, those who become experts continually seek new information, regardless of their initial area of specialization. While trying to balance all healthcare demands, it is humanly impossible to invest time into gathering and keeping up on the latest emerging research across specializations.

Updating Resources Electronically

This book addresses the challenge by including electronic resources that will continue to be updated as new research emerges and resources that help animate complex or new ways of understanding mechanisms. Resources included will help practitioners explain concepts to patients, and electronic components will translate resources for patients to read in a language (or auditory) that is best for them.

I have designed electronic tools that support accessibility and inclusion so that peer-reviewed research can be read aloud with artificial intelligence or translated to over one hundred languages. This feature helps those with cognitive dysfunction who still want to be involved in, or part of solutions but cannot individually scour the research in ways they did prior to COVID-19 infection.

Many professionals want to be more involved in sharing accurate information on social media platforms. The tools have features to support easy sharing and communicating.

Over 20 Months of Progress

This resource has already been under development and in progress for over 20 months. The proposal has passed over seven months of medical peer review, editorial review and board review. I have signed the publishing agreement, interviewed researchers, medical professionals, COVID survivors, and developed curated electronic content.

As an International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) author, ISTE 2021 Award for Visionary Leadership, 6 time Microsoft MVP for Global Impact, I've already been moving rapidly to address this Global Goal (Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing) real-world challenge by:

What I need now:

I signed up to educate and research - but in a different field

I signed up to be an educator and a researcher during this pandemic. I taught my students about solving challenges when there are unknowns and how to identify local and global challenges that need to be solved. United Nations pandemic response and Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing are part of Global Goals for Sustainable Development  has been an anchor for learning design for years.

I didn't know I'd be living it myself, taken from the job I love for over 21 months, and using educational technology to solve challenges while being medically disabled. I missed International Society for Technology in Education conference in 2021 and went from an International public speaker and book author, to needing speech therapy, physical therapy, vestibular therapy and vision therapy over 21 months and counting. My reading level went from medical journals to the equivalent of 2nd grade, from writing a book on Teaching AI to digit span and coding cognitive decline to 21st percentile, and picture naming at 23rd percentile. 

Doctors missed for nearly a year that my cognition capacity and reading were also being impacted by neurological damage that caused my eyes to move differently and both eyes to not collaborate together. It took a second opinion speech therapist to notice my eyes were not moving normally and to recommend vision therapy. Doctors used computerized eye tracking and captured quantitative data in that vision evaluation. For the first time, it made my cognitive dysfunction visible to others. It looked like this when I was trying to read:

For a year, I'd been telling neurologists that I couldn't keep my eyes moving smoothly. It felt like my eyes were bouncing. It turns out this is classic of what is seen in traumatic brain injury patients. But I never hit my head. Without technology like this, my symptoms would have been dismissed. Several months later, the vision specialists mentioned brain SPECT scans to look at blood flow, where they found many abnormalities. Because the scans didn't meet typically expected patterns in imaging, they sent them to a team in California. The lead MD researcher who determined the injury pattern was also seen in other vaccinated people. 

Had I not experienced this kind of injury, I would not have investigated how many different ways vision can be impacted other than acuity. I became aware of how many Long Covid people were trying to describe the same vision change phenomena to their doctors who were perplexed because standard eye exams showed no change in acuity. This new knowledge at the intersection of technology, data, health, and education will be crucial to finding solutions for those impacted by neuro-inflammation. It's not just Long Covid - neuro-inflammation can occur after sports concussions, automobile accidents, falls, among other things. You can hear more in the TED talk below from the co-creator of the vision test seen above. 

Having a background in doctoral-level research in neuroscience at the University of Washington, the RightEye computerized test and the Amen Clinic brain SPECT scans showed evidence of injury in the same areas of the brain. Both tests showed exactly what I'd been describing to neurologists for a year, the locations I said I suspected something was going wrong based on symptoms, and was told, "you're normal." Averaging a 96th percentile and a 21st percentile can average to the normal range, but that wide range should be a signal that something is not normal. MRI did not show tumors, or any major obstruction from a current blood clot, so the assumption was that nothing was wrong. The same thing is happening to Long COVID patients - adults and children. Just because one type of test appears "unremarkable" it doesn't mean there is nothing wrong. 

I contracted COVID at the end of June 2022. Five months later, November 2022, I am officially considered a Long Hauler, Long COVID or PASC as a result of the virus despite being vaccinated. Experiencing both adverse reaction from J&J vaccine and Long COVID, I bring a perspective to this work from experience.

As an educator, I am acutely aware now of how identical symptoms to Long COVID neurological conditions can be incredibly hard to describe and capture on standard tests, but impacting cognition from focus and concentration to eye movements and reading, speech and language, to debilitating fatigue and even appearing uncoordinated. I care about this impact on adults and children. I think of how much harder it is for children to describe symptoms than even adults. A great fear is that there are children in our classrooms who are experiencing persistent cognitive symptoms which may result in declines in learning and social interaction, increasing depression and anxiety (especially if adults think they're just being "lazy"). I worry about how Long COVID will impact the trajectory of their lives and the future generation of a workforce. I am concerned for the adults who are suffering now. 

The more I looked for answers the more I found parallel inflammatory conditions and changes in blood flow (or coagulation, clotting) seen in COVID-19 and Long COVID people. This symptom alone that can result from the body's immune system trying to fight off the virus or mounting a strong response to the COVID-19 vaccine, can have a profound impact on the brain. The video below gives an excellent synopsis of a leading neurologist, MD, PhD who talks about cognitive impairment. At 6:10 in the video, listen to her talk about impact in school and what to look for. There is "real urgency" to understand and learn about how to help address long-term neurological disease. 

As I started connecting the dots across studies, I recalled coming across a "sleeping sickness" that followed the 1918 flu pandemic, and I realized that this is not as new of a consequence of a novel virus as it may seem. A profound immune response to a new "invader" (whether novel virus or a vaccine that is designed to get an immune system to think it's the real thing to train immune system to fight when the real thing comes) can lead to changes in neurons ability to communicate. 

I didn't sign up for the path I'm on now.

I didn't have a choice in what happened to me.

I do have a choice with what I do with the function I still have assisted by technology.

I know the level of despair, how terrifying symptoms are, and what it feels like not to be believed and be called "collateral damage" and labs seen as "unremarkable" with no underlying conditions while continuing to lose function, losing the ability to contribute to society in the way I was trained, losing the career I built to help others, and losing the ability to even care for myself or drive myself to the store, to walk without running into walls, and to read without assistance.

I am unwilling to let this much suffering go to waste without helping advance science and support others. You can join me and help accelerate research and get information in the hands of those who need it now. This source doesn't promise to be the final solution, but a starting place to increase momentum.

 

So what's this book all about and why should we care?

You've heard of the Great Depression and The Great Resignation.

Long COVID is The Great Debilitation.

It is quietly impacting the entire population. Some are directly affected, others indirectly through the impact on jobs and the economy. As of July 2021, Long Covid is considered a disability under ADA .

 

The Problem

For many people who get it, COVID lasts a couple of weeks. They return to their everyday lives. But for a large and growing number, they’re not returning to their usual selves. No longer testing positive for the illness, those suffering from what’s now called Long COVID continue to have serious, often debilitating problems, such as neurological impairment (not just fog), debilitating fatigue, headaches and dizziness, but these aren't all. There are over 200 reported symptoms that impact every organ system, function, and quality of life.

 

 

 

While the causes are being investigated, many sufferers are not getting proper diagnoses or treatment from their doctors. Susan Pi created a video about her journey with Long COVID as a way to show that healthy, active people are still at risk, her journey trying to navigate medical care, and the new research that led to answers that helped her. Her story will resonate with those experiencing Long COVID and provide insight into the experience for those who have not lived through it. It is truly hard to comprehend if you have never personally experienced the devastation. 

 

 

 

The New York Times published the transcript on June 21, 2022 of a podcast by Ezra Klein with Dr Lekshmi Santhosh , who discusses the complexities and limitations surrounding Long COVID, research, patients, and clinical practice.

 

Long Covid is a National Crisis.

 

As of June 22, 2022 the CDC stated that 1 in 5 of those who have reported having Covid in the past still have symptoms of “long COVID.” Of those Long Covid sufferers, 75% were never hospitalized, which means they were considered mild cases.

 

 

"Like cell phone battery constantly dying"

In addition, according to Forbes, June 22, 2022, 1 in 3 Danish children who had Covid have long-lasting symptoms.

The British Medical Journal reported a study from King's College London that gathered self-reported data from an app showing that nearly 11 percent of those who had the Delta variant and nearly five percent of those who had the Omicron variant are Long COVID sufferers. That may not sound like a lot, but when percentages become real people, they're enormous. The CDC said as of February 2022, 75 percent of American children and adolescents 17 and under have had COVID. If that count reflects underreporting in adults, over 248 million people. Looking at the smallest percentage, listed as five percent, still means that over twelve million people in the United States alone are dealing with Long COVID. The CBS News story below stated research suggested already 1.6 million Americans could no longer work full-time because of Long COVID.

 

 

The Great Debilitation

You may have heard of The Great Resignation affecting the economy. We're actually on the precipice of The Great Debilitation. The ramifications of having so many people with medical problems will be felt throughout the economy – employees unable to work or work full time, employers needing to make accommodations under ADA without clear guidelines or additional resources, and insurers and the public treasury having to pay out enormous sums for disabilities. Families will see their incomes drop while medical bills rise dramatically.

 

Twelve million sufferers impact many times that. Research is being funded. Progress is underway to understand the causes of Long Covid better. But, there is a gap between these exceptional contributions and those who need to make that new knowledge actionable. Translating research into accessible language and connecting the dots to actionable solutions is time-intensive for already strained research and medical system. We can’t wait years to get better information into the hands of those who need it as our society grapples with these issues. Doing this work voluntarily is my contribution.

 

Why should you give?

 

Who I am and why I am writing this book?

 

My Ph.D. is from the University of Washington (2011), where I focused on neuroscience, pre-med, pharmacology, and human development and cognition. You can read my CV here . My goal was to bridge the gap between research and practice and apply what I learned into an educational setting, continually engaging in research and practice simultaneously. This background prepared me to lead the COVID-19 response for education beginning February 2020 before there was any clear guidance for schools.

I began collaborating with epidemiologists, front-line medical professionals working in the emergency rooms to treat COVID-19. I was reading medical journals and historical documents about past pandemics to establish a 3-5 year COVID-19 plan for our school, long before any guidance was released for schools other than stating closures would be a short two weeks.

This plan was in place before vaccines were available, drew on a multi-layered approach, including AI, and resulted in being the first school in Washington State to reopen in person exceeding all of the Washington State Governor's guidelines to re-open schools. From spring 2020 the end of emergency orders in Washington State (three end of the school years) we have had zero COVID transmission in our school, led hybrid, hyflex, and in-person learning, and became a model for what is possible. We were highlighted on the news multiple times starting in August 2020 and showing students having the opportunity to accelerate if they chose while other schools limited new content.

 

Renton area school beginning year with in-person learning despite Inslee's warning | KOMO (komonews.com)

As Washington State's first Cognia STEM Certified school, science, accuracy, and leading the way is important to our mission and vision. Our staff on site were all vaccinated as soon as vaccination was available. There were teachers across the U.S. who said, "I didn't sign up for this. [teaching during a pandemic]." But, I did. I knew I was walking into the hardest years of my teaching, leading, research, and public speaking career, because my decisions needed evidence to support them, and my decisions could have life and death consequences.

 

 

 

 

At the intersection of all of these learnings, my pandemic story expanded.

I learned what Long COVID feels like, but in an unexpected way. I went from public speaking internationally, researching, and a book author, to documented vision and brain damage that impacts daily function. Technology and computerized testing has shown what appeared "unremarkable" on standard labs. Just like in education, it is possible for a student to look like they're not trying hard enough when they haven't been tested for dyslexia or vision. The same thing happens in medical testing. Asking different questions can yield different data. If patient complained of arm pain and an examination revealed no bruise or external trauma, but the person was never investigated for a heart condition or heart attack, important data could be missed. Likewise, my vision damage was misdiagnosed for a year because my visual acuity is still 20/20. It is not the structure of my eye. It is the neural damage that has impacted the way my brain and eyes communicate and process information. 

I am one of the people Science Magazine described as the less common - the unlucky who experienced identical Long COVID symptoms, but first without ever having the virus (confirmed and corroborated by multiple research labs).

 

 

 

 

You can see more of my story, test results, misdiagnoses, and symptoms in this interview:

 

 

 

I was vaccinated early because I work in a community where it was important to model vaccines as an important part of pandemic response, a way demonstrate civic engagement and caring about others, following Public Health requirements to be vaccinated by the end of March 2021.

I had what is known as a “severe adverse reaction” documented on-site as a "clinically significant adverse event" within minutes of injection with Janssen/J&J COVID-19 vaccine, a vaccine that the FDA has since strictly limited and manufacturing problems were found. Consequently, while never having had COVID, I became disabled since March 14, 2021. I contracted COVID in summer 2022 while still unrecovered, still not medically cleared to work or drive due to the severity of my ongoing symptoms.

Because I love science and am an educator and researcher, I believe there must be some logical explanation and some solution to what I was and still am experiencing.

 

It wasn't good enough for me to be told by a medical professional, "You are collateral damage in a war against COVID for doing the right thing. No one will help you. If you care enough about the suffering of others, or to reduce the pain of those who come after you, don't give up looking for answers." Looking for answers for myself was not enough. I want to help support the medical professionals and researchers who are tirelessly working to find and gather answers. So, I used AI, Microsoft's Immersive Reader as part of Wakelet where I gathered medical research and used the feature to help me "read."

Thanks to the past decade of work in educational technology, I knew the AI tools I could use help me communicate when I lost verbal speech, when I was unable to read due to the severity of brain damage, and when my disability insurance required me to demonstrate proof in a week or my case would be closed. I succeeded in demonstrating proof that was reviewed by two external Board Certified MD specialists.

Many medical professionals and researchers are unaware of tools edtech has been advancing through the pandemic, and these tools can support accessibility. This is why such tools will be important, both in holding the content, and directing care teams and policy makers to know what exists to support a mass disabling event like Long COVID. 

When I was first told by a speech therapist they didn't know what to do because it is not typical for adult onset stuttering, or what to do following neurological injury following vaccination, I knew early intervention following brain injury (regardless of the mechanism of injury) is crucial to recovery. Because I lost verbal speech, the ability to name objects and images, and severe word-finding problems, I knew something was going wrong in language processing. I figured if pathways for English language were broken, what better time than now to try to build new language pathways for a language I had never studied. At least it would show me if I had the capability to build new pathways. 

As of November 30, 2022, I have hit a 560 day streak of daily language practice. I started out getting every answer wrong and could not recall the practice or word I was just given.

By the time I was referred to new speech therapist as a second opinion, in his baseline test for me, he asked if Spanish was my first language, because when he worked on image recall, words came to mind in Spanish first and I still struggled with English. What did this show me? My English pathways were still "broken" BUT I had the capacity to build new language pathways. It meant plasticity is possible. The amount of practice and design of DuoLingo had many parallel techniques I experienced in vision therapy and speech therapy. I became more impressed by the research that went into the tool, and again, supported by AI. For people who care going through cognitive impairments from neural injury and who don't have access to speech or vision therapists or doctors have not diagnosed them, this is an accessible tool that can help support early intervention and healing. 

Looking for answers to help myself recover - currated resources for others

I have not given up seeking answers. The documentation and research that my insurance company demanded became the basis for this book. When I learned how many medical providers were unaware of emerging research and how many people did not have the ability to access that level of medical research themselves, I knew I needed to do something.

 

I have learned the severity of the identical Long COVID symptoms and have been living them since March 14, 2021, with added symptoms of post virus loss of smell and taste for five months. I have found the amazing peer-reviewed medical research that becomes puzzle pieces. I have learned through this process, just like in education, there is a major gap between research and practice, and a great delay in getting that research into the hands of those who most need it. Clinicians, specialists, medical professionals are already overburdened. Researchers are working overtime to try to understand and contribute new knowledge. Neither have the time or bandwidth to continually communicate findings. To seek the most accurate information, I have gone directly to officials and have been in communication with FDA, CDC, DOH, HHS, CBER, researchers, epidemiologists, Long COVID patients, and vaccine manufacturers. I have identified gaps, and offered to help bridge gaps. This resource is my contribution.

You can read more about my case in The British Medical Journal, and Reuters.

 

My skills collided with the barriers I ran into in trying to get medical care. When disability insurance required me to provide proof of causation within one week or my case would be closed, it took every amount of training I had – from AI and accessibility tools to help me accomplish this task with brain and vision damage—to using two years of intensive COVID medical journal reading and conversations with COVID-19 front-line medical professionals, to fight for myself. Having gathered that much information, and seeing how many more people were in the same predicament, I decided to get information out to others, in an accessible way, as quickly as possible. The book I am writing has been underway for 21 months specific to Long COVID with a foundation of 11 more months of research on COVID-19 and pandemics. 32 months of work have already gone into this book. The proposal has passed medical peer review, board review and editorial review. I have now signed a publishing agreement with the highly reputable Routledge/Taylor & Francis under CRC Press to publish Open Access.

 

 

 

You can see early proof of concept how this book is not only a print source, but an electronic resource that takes some of the best practices I have learned and researched as I personally taught and led the development of new courses, collaborated with international education leaders, to make this book not only accessible language, but making the medical research accessible for those with "brain fog" and vision challenges, to accessibility across language barriers using AI to translate primary source content.

 

 

 

 

Why help fund Open Access Publishing?

 

Crowdsourced funding increases transparency, decreases limitations, and removes questions of influence on content by funding source. The content and direction is already established, proposal already medically peer-reviewed independently through the Publisher, and the quicker I can raise the funds to cover cost of publication, the sooner these resources can fill a gap.

 

In February 2022, New York Department of Health Consortium on Long Covid described the desperate need for an educational resource on Long Covid, but projected that would be years away due to funding constraints.

 

Standard publishing through a company that was founded in 1836 as an academic publisher lends the rigorous standards and scientific accuracy needed to add credibility to this work. However, to reach underserved populations, public health, clinics that are under-resourced, health care facilities that have little to no access or connection with research universities, and locations outside of the United States, I did not want cost to be a prohibitive barrier to knowledge, access, and help. Open Access publishing will help fill that gap and get help more quickly to those who have already been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic.

 

Busy medical professionals caring for people now do not have the time or resources to spend scouring medical research and curating content. An electronic resource will support ease of access, the ability to have AI use natural language processing to even help communicate findings to people who speak languages other than English when translators are not available.

 

Open Access increases speed to market to help others in need now.

 

Open Access process allows a range of transparent peer reviews along the way, including the electronic components. It allows for ease of access to develop new courses and have resources easily accessible for learners, and quick adaptation for online and remote learning, as well as a curated list of readings that can easily be added to a course syllabus with a short link or a QR code.

 

Open Access with electronic collections will allow for continuous improvement and updates to primary source content as more studies and information become available.

 

One of the reasons why I chose Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group is that they offer an Open Source format for publishing materials prior to an entire book being written and edited, which often takes seven to ten months. Instead, I will be able to publish each stand-alone chapter as it is written, getting information into the hands of those who need it in a timely manner so they can act upon it – right now.

 

My content can come to market in weeks and months not years – whereas government is funding full salaries, and there will be delay for reviewing proposals, awarding funding, and getting the process started, establishing collaborations. Even accelerated, 2-3 years from now would be a reasonable accelerated outcome.

 

Open Source not only speeds time to publication, it also allows those working in the field to engage in peer review, helping improve the work through their knowledge and experiences.

 

And finally, Open Source allows me to continuously improve the work before it goes into print, thereby including the latest studies and information as it becomes available.

 

Who benefits from their giving

Who this book is for:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why is all this important?

Doctors, officials at government health agencies, policymakers, and families all need information sooner, not later.

 

First and foremost, I want to get information into the hands of practitioners, as they need information now to understand the disease and adequately diagnose patients. In conversations with official agencies, there are known delays in getting information into publicly accessible formats, including public-facing official websites. One of my skills is taking long, complex studies and making them digestible for those who don’t have time to read them. I am creating a bridge between technical content and accessible language, at the same time, with foundations rigorous enough to spark new scholarly works by connecting dots and providing reliable resources. I demonstrated it is possible to take a complex topic (artificial intelligence), with an evolving definition and a lot of unknowns, and make the content accessible to a K-12 audience who are not computer scientists, AND provide rigorous enough research that supported further scholarly contributions (i.e.,MIT and Harvard , influencing policy and ethics, and scholarly work on misinformation and disinformation etc.).

And yes, my book on AI was also cited in Handbook of Research on the Efficacy of Training Programs and Systems in Medical Education . I have shown evidence that I can produce a work that is relevant to the United States and internationally, with the Teaching AI book translated into four languages in addition to English. Teaching AI was commissioned by General Motors and International Society for Technology in Education, with me as the invited author.

 

As stated earlier, policymakers need reliable, scientifically rigorous information faster than government funded research will arrive, as dealing with the implications of Long Covid requires appropriate new laws and regulations. The same holds true for those regulated – insurers and employers – need guidance on how to deal with a growing population.

 

Lastly, this book is for the general public, and especially those who are combating a lack of knowledge and misinformation, when they seek help from practitioners and institutions. It is not, however, intended to help anyone diagnose their symptoms.

 

Where the money goes:

Priority of spending for monies raised

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have provided an overview about my book, why it needs to come to market quickly, and how it will help. Because I believe in complete transparency, I want to tell you, in detail, where your donation will go and what it helps fund. There is no “me” in this Go Fund Me. I am not taking a dime. I have not been funded for any of the 26 months of work I have already invested into this project as of June 2022. I signed up to be an educator and researcher during COVID-19. I was taken from the job I love and my contributions to society. Being homebound and not medically cleared to work, with medical, disability insurance, and CICP demands to provide standard for proof of causation, and the time of intensive investigation to prepare for 3-5 year COVID-19 school response (before I was debilitated by J&J vaccine) was a necessity. Rather than keeping it to myself, I want to help others, despite massive personal financial losses and mounting medical bills. Health insurance policy has not caught up to science and policy yet as mine states that COVID-19 vaccines were not part of emergency orders (despite Washington State mandates for educators to maintain their job) and therefore, they opine it is unnecessary to cover medical related to severe adverse events. For those with Long Covid who have "unremarkable" tests, I feel their pain in the barriers to establish "proof," especially for those with no background as a researcher or reading medical studies.

 

The primary purpose of this fundraising effort is to pay my publisher. While my other book earns royalties from a publisher, to remove cost barriers and increase access, I have selected to publish Open Access. As a result, I have to pay the publisher for their work editing, formatting, and hosting the chapters prior to creating a printed work. The financial need for this purpose is approximately twenty thousand dollars. There may be additional fees for additional transparent peer review, or editorial services for indexing, and support with editing/revision due to the severity of my neurological injury. Engaging in additional services could speed up the time to manuscript submission, acceptance, and publication.

 

Once that goal is met and the chapters start being published, the uses of funds will go to the following activities, in this order.

 

First, I need to do some publicity. The publisher does a limited amount of marketing and no marketing to speak of for open access. As it is crucial that those who need information are aware of the resource, I will do marketing around the chapters that are published. This is not to sell books - as Open Access are freely accessible – it will be quite a while before that happens.

 

Second, I will bring the work to the practitioners. I will attend select medical conferences and place limited advertisements in medical journals to market in the places practitioners get new information.

 

Third, I will travel to meet with government and health officials to get the most accurate information, both to them and from them. This includes Washington, DC and Atlanta for the CDC, or wherever the right officials are.

 

Fourth, my work will require some infrastructure, such as a website, mailing expenses, and the like. This will be a minimal amount but are expenses I can’t cover while not working (and on top of my medical bills).

 

Lastly, I have needed to retain the services of an attorney-advisor. This has been a crucial step with the severity of neurological symptoms "brain fog" and new vision disability. While he has donated over half of his services, and agreed to take money last, it is only appropriate to pay him a small amount for his invaluable help.

Brokenness becomes part of the story

In my book, Teaching AI: Exploring New Frontiers for Learning, I talked about the importance of not forgetting the past and using that to inform the future, not hiding brokenness, but what we can learn from ancient cultural practices like gold repair - where a shattered object is not discarded. The damage is repaired and highlighted with gold. The brokenness becomes part of the history of the object, part of the story and part of its beauty. I signed up to be an educator and leader during the pandemic. This was not part of my plan, but I am choosing to rebuild, and highlight the brokenness to become part of a story that helps contribute to science and hopefully, decrease the pain and suffering of those who come after me. Join me in helping make this a reality.