ATL founder David Lat announces on social media that he has the coronavirus
David Lat. Photo from Above the Law.
David Lat, the founder of the law blog Above the Law and ABA Journal Legal Rebel who now works as a legal recruiter, says he has COVID-19.
Besides announcing his situation in a tweet and on LinkedIn, he wrote a Facebook post thanking people for their “prayers, sympathies and good wishes” and apologizing to anyone he may have unknowingly infected. He said he plans to write a first-person piece about his ordeal soon.
Lat wrote in his Facebook post that his husband, Zach Shemtob, can be treated “as a confirmed case as well, in case you interacted only with him and not with me.” Shemtob has the same symptoms, Lat wrote.
“I will write more later, but I want to let as many of you know as soon possible because if you had any contact with me anytime after around Sunday, Feb. 23, you can play the ‘David Lat card’ and can—and should—get tested automatically. Otherwise, you will have to jump through the Kafkaesque hoops that I did to get a simple test that other countries have already administered to 190,000 or 320,000 of their citizens (South Korea and China, respectively; the U.S., in contrast, has administered 20,907, a national disgrace),” Lat wrote.
News reports from the Wall Street Journal, Science and the New York Times say that South Korea has tested more than 250,000 people.
According to a Thursday story in the New York Times, many people who think they have the coronavirus—not just in New York, but across the country—have found it difficult to get tested. Some of those people were told there were not enough tests, the paper reported.
“I feel very grateful and fortunate to have good health insurance and to be under the care of the talented and hardworking (but very understaffed) team here at NYU Langone Medical Center. Thanks, be safe—stay home, wash your hands, chuck your clothes from the outside in the laundry as soon as you come home—and I’ll have more in a bit,” Lat wrote.
Updated at 3:50 p.m. to clarify Lat’s Facebook statements regarding his husband.
