Dipti S. Barot

I’m A Doctor. The Things I’m Now Being Trained To Do In Trump’s America Are Terrifying. “It was then I realized that I was being prepared to be a doctor in an emerging police state.”

I wrote this after doing a training on the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution, because, apparently, this is necessary to be a doctor under this regime. Grateful to @huffpost.com and, always, dream editor @noahmichelson.bsky.social for the platform.

www.huffpost.com/entry/doctor...

I’m A Doctor. The Things I’m Now Being Trained To Do In Trump’s America Are Terrifying. “It was then I realized that I was being prepared to be a doctor in an emerging police state.”

"There are no sacred spaces in this regime of terror"

@diptisbarot.bsky.social has a chilling new essay up on @huffpost.com Personal today about what her life is like as a doctor in the United States right now and it's absolutely terrifying

Contributor: The heroes of the resistance are stepping up The Trump administration is playing a losing game of whack-a-mole trying to silence the growing chorus of critics.

I'm happy to say that despite interference from the owner, the LA Times Opinion team is still publishing powerful pieces like this one from @diptisbarot.bsky.social
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: The heroes of the resistance are stepping up The Trump administration is playing a losing game of whack-a-mole trying to silence the growing chorus of critics.

I wrote this because, "This is America. You should be able to call a Nazi salute a Nazi salute, and a genocide a genocide." Thanks to @latimes.com for the platform.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

There’s only one way to describe the A’s leaving Oakland: Generational theft At the final Saturday night A’s game at the Coliseum, I saw the end of another sports era caused by another greedy billionaire stealing joy from generations

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 9/26/2024 about the generational theft of the Oakland A's.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Opinion: How can Usha Vance stand by her husband as he fans bigotry? JD Vance, the GOP vice presidential candidate, used to say he deplored Donald Trump. Now they both foment hate for nonwhite people. But Usha Vance knows better.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @latimes.com on 9/23/2024. The question posed: How can Usha Vance stand by her husband as he fans bigotry?

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

My father-in-law can't fight cancer and his insurance company at the same time My father-in-law is fighting for his life. The last thing he needs is to be fighting his insurance company, too.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 6/17/2024. I wrote about my father-in-law with Stage 4 cancer and the ways his insurance company tries to deny him the care he needs.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Grieving for Gaza — and my friend Marla My friend Marla recently came to me in a dream. She was an American killed by a Hamas bomb in Jerusalem in 2002, shortly after we both graduated college.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 5/19/2024. I described it as, "not perfect, and certainly not everything I wanted was in there, but I did my best."

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Dedicated doctors are leaving medicine. This isn’t burnout. It’s a medical crisis Some of the best people I know in health care are jumping ship and precious little is being done to stem the tide of what is a clinician exodus.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 7/6/2023. "This isn’t burnout. You can only destroy yourself so long fighting to provide the kind of care you can barely countenance."
www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

My father made a promise to his mother. When she died, he had just hours to keep it. My father’s vow to honor his mother’s request and perform her last rites in India stretched him to his limits.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 5/14/2023. I had the privilege of telling my father's story about a promise he made to his mother.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

COVID hit the class of 2023 hard. Do they think of themselves as victims? They’ve faced lockdowns, a mental health crisis and the dawn of climate change. What does the COVID class of 2023 think of the world they’re poised to inherit?

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 12/24/2022. My nephew and his friends, part of the Covid Class of 2023, reflected on their time in high school.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

New COVID variants are sending immunocompromised people like me back to solitary confinement Evusheld was a game-changer for immunocompromised like me. But the drug may no longer work against new variants.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 11/14/2022. I wrote about the impact of new Covid variants on the immunocompromised.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

In my mother's kitchen, Diwali came early this year Given who my Mom is, a little cancer or chemo was never going to get in the way of her annual Diwali food operation.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @salonnewsroom.bsky.social on 10/24/2022. I wrote this piece to honor my Mom and our Diwali traditions, knowing that I am not promised more of these moments.

www.salon.com/2022/10/24/i...

Contributor: New COVID strains are coming. It's no time to let down our guard Vulnerable people will pay with their lives. Some simple precautions would make a huge difference in mitigating spread of the disease and reducing its death toll.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @latimes.com on 10/20/2022. I wrote at the time, "The only people for whom COVID is truly over are the thousands who die each week because of it."

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

As a doctor in California, my life hasn’t changed since the end of Roe. I’m disgusted by that. This moment in history compels us to ask ourselves: Do we have the requisite courage to...

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 8/30/2022. I wrote, "If ever there were a time for doctors to have an “I’m Spartacus” moment...that time is now."

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

My aging mom fell. If I weren’t a doctor, our health care system wouldn’t have helped her up Every encounter with our medical system feels like it’s a fight for our lives.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 7/17/2022. Nothing spells failure like your Mom falling on your watch as her Mother’s Day turns to night in the ER.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/arti...

My Dad Made An 'Immigrant Float' For Our July 4th Parade And Something Beautiful Happened "The local police tried to dissuade him from moving forward, saying that they could not make any promises about our safety. Dad refused."

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @huffpost.com on 7/4/2022. I wrote this "to remind people that unless you were indigenous, you came from somewhere else."

www.huffpost.com/entry/july-4...

Thank you, Andrew Wiggins, for getting vaccinated Andrew Wiggins made a sacrifice, setting aside his concerns and getting vaccinated against Covid. The Warriors couldn't have won without it.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. Published by @fansided.bsky.social on 6/17/2022. I wrote about the Warriors' NBA championship and thanked Andrew Wiggins for getting vaccinated against Covid.

fansided.com/2022/06/17/a...

My nephew’s high school in Berkeley just averted a mass shooting. Liberal communities are not immune Gun violence is a manifestation of the sickness in society we all helped create.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 6/10/2022. I wrote about my nephew’s high school in Berkeley that had just averted a mass shooting.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/arti...

A new COVID shot could make ‘normal’ safe again. So why am I one of the few to get it? Not enough high-risk patients know about Evusheld, and neither do their providers....

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @sfchronicle.com on 5/6/2022 about Evusheld, used for the immune compromised as pre-exposure prophylaxis.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

My 11-Year-Old Patient Was Pregnant. Here's What I Want You To Know About Being 'Pro-Life.' "Our medical assistant came to me, panicked, and handed me a positive test. ... 'Run it again,' I sputtered — to buy some time and gather my wits and hope by some miracle it would produce a different ...

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @huffpost.com on 5/3/2022. Our clinic rooms will always be too small for anybody but providers and our patients.

www.huffpost.com/entry/aborti...

Contributor: My friend the nurse who gives her all needed help. The healthcare system let her down As a healthcare worker, my friend was pushed to the brink during the pandemic — and almost no one came through for her.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was published by @latimes.com on 4/2/2022 about the failure of the healthcare system in the context of our healthcare workers.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

I Was A COVID Doctor. Here's The One Thing I Refuse To Do As We 'Get Back To Normal.' "For the past two years, I have wanted a megaphone to drown out the voices of those who didn’t seem to mind if their policies landed me in a body bag."

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was about Covid and "getting back to normal" published by @huffpost.com on 3/15/2022.

www.huffpost.com/entry/covid-...

Lifting the California mask mandate basically says chronically ill and disabled lives don’t matter When you prioritize the lives of the most vulnerable, everyone is protected.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was a piece about lifting the mask mandates and the effect on the immune compromised published by @sfchronicle.com on 2/16/2022.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Omicron can still kill you. Here’s what it took to get the pills I needed to save my mom For those most at risk of falling gravely ill, COVID treatments like Paxlovid are quickly...

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was about our broken healthcare system and the Omicron variant published by @sfchronicle.com on 2/22/2022.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

I Want To Keep My Parents Safe From COVID So They Have The Luxury Of Dying Of Cancer "Of course everyone would line up to get shots, to protect one another, to help the vulnerable like my parents, we reasoned. We were wrong."

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was a pandemic journal entry about keeping my immune compromised parents safe, published by @huffpost.com on 11/13/2021.

www.huffpost.com/entry/cancer...

Here’s what COVID does to your body when you’re vaccinated — and when you aren’t Yes, you can still get COVID if you are vaccinated. But my ICU colleagues will likely not...

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was a piece about the Covid vaccine and the protective effects of being vaccinated published by @sfchronicle.com on 10/15/2021.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

As a doctor, I don’t hate the unvaccinated. But I rage at COVID disinformation profiteers Bad actors with the big platforms are behind each and every recent COVID-19 death of the...

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. I wrote this about Covid misinformation and it was published by @sfchronicle.com on 9/12/2021.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Contributor: The school emailed about a COVID-19 'Case Cluster.’ Soon, I was cold-calling to help My nephews come home from school with tales of COVID and quarantine while the school district's reassurances ring hollower with every email.

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. This was about Covid in schools and was published by @latimes.com on 9/2/2021.

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Opinion: I’m a doctor treating anti-vaxxers in California while my family is dying in India Hundreds of millions in India are still awaiting their jabs while America’s vaccine...

Transferring my published pieces over from the *other* place so that it is all here. I wrote this about dealing with anti-vaxxers and it was published by @sfchronicle.com on 5/20/2021.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...