The wiz kid arrives

I see that the new head of the Oregon health department is here and on the job. As I wrote when her appointment was announced, she's a nice young doctor from New Jersey, Sejal Hathi. She made a first-day video, here, and it says what you'd expect it to say. Don't forget the "E" word! 

She'll bear the "interim" title until she's confirmed by the bobbleheads in the state legislature. But then again, that's what they said about her predecessor, James Schroeder, who had hardly finished his first cup of coffee in the break room when he realized the whole agency was "toxic" and quit.

Between the foulness of the culture in the health "authority" and the inherent difficulty of moving from New Jersey to Oregon – I've seen a lot of such moves not work out – I wouldn't expect Dr. Hathi to be here for long. My over/under is 1 year – place your bets. If the phone ever rings and it's Joe Biden, she'll be gone the next day, and there won't be time for a video saying goodbye.

Meanwhile, people die on our cities' streets every day. There's actual shigellosis going around in Portland from all the defecation on the sidewalks and in the entry ways. Hard drugs are utterly out of control. The corporate pharmacies are closing left and right. You can't get an ambulance when you need one. The rogue suits at the med school are trying to take over every doctor's office in the state. And due to corporate bungling, elective surgeries are at a standstill over the lack of anesthesiologists. I hope the good Dr. Hathi can turn the corner on some of these daunting problems, rather than making them worse. Just stopping the slide would be an improvement at this point. 

Good luck, Doc. I wouldn't take your new job for all the tea in China, or all the cannabis in Oregon.