Galveston oh Galveston. The superstitious lore of a backward people

Plead me guilty of causing “unnecessary alarm among the natives.”

If they had taken heed of the wild prattling of a backward man, Scripps would have saved themselves a few million dollars, and their patients much hardship and pain.

In February 2021, I started a communication campaign, as per usual. The clowns at Scripps had somehow managed to remove my MyScripps Account, and in doing so kicked me out of the queue for Covid-19 vaccines. I dare boast that I had expected it; I had predicted it, and told many of my prediction; The many, included some members of the media, and most importantly, the California Department of Justice. It is not that I expected a personal attack, but that I held, vocalized and wrote that means and methods would be found to deny vaccines to Black people, when a viable vaccination was perfected, and made available.

In or around December 2020, my health care provider, Scripps Health communicated by Email that it would be offering Covid-19 vaccines in the near future. It also made an alarming claim; it stated that having a MyScripps account was a Federally mandated requirement; a prerequisite to obtaining that health care service, through Scripps. Health Care providers that receive public funding can impose no such restrictions. Scripps' claim that the Feds required internet access, as a pre-condition for receiving vaccinations, was a plain, simple, and far-reaching lie.

In January, when Mrs. Hylton was invited to enroll for vaccinations and I was not, It was evident that something was amiss. After all, she joined MyScripps, at my insistence, because, despite the illegality of its pre-condition, there was no other way to be vaccinated through our health care provider, of around 15 years; discretion being the better part of valour. But first, I checked my MyScripps account. It, my account, was not accessible. It did not work. Accordingly, I called and wrote, asking for my account to be fixed (re-activated) by Scripps. Nothing, two calls and two promises later, still no action! 

Around three weeks into the process, I received an Email from Scripps(excerpted below.) On learning what had become of my account; it had been made inactive as part of a migration to a more robust system, I screamed "bullshit." Bullshit because Scripps, on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 5:37 PM wrote:

In 2017 Scripps began to migrate from our original online system to a more robust platform for the MyScripps experience. In April of 2017, Scripps mailed a letter to our patient population. The letter explained this move and provided instructions on how to enroll. At that time only a small percentage of our patient population had activated their accounts, you and Mrs. Hylton were early adopters! We had to disable all MyScripps accounts to allow us to move to a new system. I tracked down the mailing list and confirmed you and your wife are on the list, Richard and Faye Hylton at 13166 JANE CT. The attachments included in my email to you provide much of the information shared in the letters (the attached are promotional pieces used to support this effort). I have contacted our printer to ask for the actual letter copies so I can share the precise communication

The above is a a litany of easily refutable lies.

Bullshit, because, unlike most people, I can boast about being an expert on the migration of systems.

I began to write with even more frequency; perhaps every few days. Again, I asked for my account to be re-activated. Again, nothing, no action! I started to include politicians. I even complained to the California's Department of Health Care Services, orally and in writing. I was always effectively ignored.

At its core, Scripps implied, by words and inaction, that my personal data was somehow lost, thus betraying careless or wanton disregard for the safeguarding of patient data. The folk at Scripps, who should have attended to what was a profoundly serious matter ignored me. After all, my cry equated to no more than the lore or bleating of one of those backward superstitious people.  But, this ignoring of me which was also the ignoring of shortcomings in Scripps' data safekeeping was not for long, for in April 2021- two short months later- the chickens came home to roost, and Scripps was fucked, robustly and thoroughly fucked, and for over a month. During the expected chaos, Scripps returned to the dark ages of phones and paper.

Lock back that gate

While growing up in Jamaica, my wife lived in a home guarded by an old man, Mr. Williams. Williams, the gate-keeper, sat on the verandah to ensure that the gate remained locked. Errol Caan was a little boy who visited often. Errol did not believe in gates. He opened them, when required, but closed none. Not even, when ordered to, by the castle keeper's shouts of "Lock back that gate." Instead; Errol would run away while shouting back, "Your batty, your batty, your batty."

Like little  Errol, Scripps did not lock back the gate, and web-crawlers, sporting RansomWare gained access to their systems. The rest is history and expensive. It did not have to be so. Any "migration" that looses patient data, personal data is an alarm. And it is not that management did not know for I communicated with Charles B. Engle, on the matter.

Hoisted by their own petards, they, at Scripps, were. Their patients were hoisted too.

California's Department of Health Care Services is silent. Embarrassed? I learned , in May, that those fine folk were monitoring ransom-captive Scripps' efforts to continue to provide services, and to return online, while seeming to appear unaware of the carelessness that caused or contributed to the condition.

With my usual gallantry, I told them, the DHCS, that I had told them in March. I suppose that the are unappreciative.  Sensible regulators/supervisors recognize open gates, or should, especially in the age of medical services being delivered though, or facilitated by, the Internet.

I am become Errol Caan; And, I shout "Your batty, your batty, your batty" -the American equivalent is FU.

In Galveston, in 1900, they ignored warnings and advice from people who were seen as backward. Of course, those backward people, Cubans, were the world's preeminent hurricane forecasters.  I was merely told a story that made no sense, one that with time and neglect became connected to considerable Scripps' expense. 

The Galveston arrogance was expensive, too. Much more expensive.