Joseph Sabino Mistick: Bad timing means more covid deaths

It wasn’t until Joseph “Dada” Sabino was mustering out of the Navy after World War II that he learned from a young medical officer that he had a bad mitral heart valve. The war in the Pacific had given him plenty to deal with, but this surprise would have him in and out of the Aspinwall Veterans Hospital until he died Jan. 20, 1953.

In his wallet in his hospital nightstand were the mementos of a simple life — his driver’s license, membership cards for the Young Democratic Club of Allegheny County and the Italian Progressive Club in Braddock, and a church raffle ticket. And there was a folded newspaper clipping there, too, kept handy so that he could show it around and reread it when things got tough.

I am Dada’s son. And after all these years, it is that clipping that I can’t shake. It is a story from the old Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph about a man from Trinidad who traveled to Pittsburgh for an experimental mitral valve procedure that would save his life. The operation would soon become routine.

The opening words of the now yellowed article are, “Presbyterian Hospital’s chest surgery team now has 21 successful mitral valve operations to its credit,” and Dada hung on every word.

The thing is this: He knew what he had prayed for had finally come, and he knew that it could save his life. He just wasn’t sure if he could hang on long enough to get his turn.

I have always wondered what that felt like, but nobody has to wonder about that now. All of us are waiting for the vaccine that can save us, developed in record time and tested and deemed safe, but somehow still beyond our reach. And no one has been able to tell us why.

“Operation Warp Speed” has ground to a halt. There has been no national plan, no national strategy to deliver the vaccine. The Trump White House dumped it onto the states, knowing the states are strapped for funds and lack the means. And the states keep pinning their hopes on federal help.

And it got worse. In his final days, the outgoing secretary of Health and Human Services announced the federal government would release its vaccine reserves, allowing the states to inoculate more older Americans faster. It was cause for hope, but that was a lie. There was no federal stockpile.

It’s up to President Joe Biden now. His goal is to deliver 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office. On Inauguration Day, he promised, “We can put people to work in good jobs. We can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly virus.”

Over the years, when people asked what my father died from, I would sometimes want to avoid the whole sad story. Then, I would simply say, “Bad timing.”

And that is what is killing us now. The vaccine is here, but many Americans will catch the virus while they are waiting for their shots. And many of them will die simply because their timing is bad.

That’s not mere fate. That’s the result of incompetence and neglect and political posturing up until now. And we deserve better.