1/ The data on the hugely disproportionate impacts of #COVID19 on people of color in US are devastating. See table 3. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm

2/ But it also can feel pretty abstract. What it means to me as a Black American is that 3 of my professional peers lost close family members yesterday. In one day. And those are just the ones I know from a quick look through my social media feeds...

3/ the inequities also mean that @black_epi and other BIPOC folks are facing January with dread. Even if we had a perfect & instantaneous vaccine rollout, we are still going to see weeks in January averaging 3,500 deaths a day. https://twitter.com/_stah/status/1344584213992005638?s=21 https://twitter.com/_stah/status/1344584213992005638

4/ Those are going to be people I know. Being an epidemiologist from a large working-class Black family right now is horrifying. Statistically, someone I love is probably going to die a pretty awful #COVID19 death in the next few months. I just don’t know who...

5/ And, if not my family, if I get lucky, then my peers. That’s cold comfort. It’s the strangest feeling...Knowing the #epitwitter data is like a bad horror movie plot - it’s having some blurry mirror into the worst parts of the near future.

6/ Another challenge of the huge social differences, with infections and deaths so concentrated in certain groups, is that some of my colleagues still don’t get it. They still sometimes send demanding business-as-usual emails that give me pause.

7/ And these are normally kind people. I don’t think it’s malicious. I think they literally forget... they forget that, at any given moment, I could be receiving a phone call that a parent or cousin or an aunt or another uncle has died. I could be helping plan a Zoom funeral

8/ Multiple times this week, in conversations w professional acquaintances (of all backgrounds), I’ve found out they are suffering tremendous challenges (COVID deaths, cancer dx, marital challenges, personal health challenges). And, for some private people, you’ll never know

9/ So I guess this is just an #epitwitter PSA. So many are going to lose beloved people this month. Especially your Black, Latino/a, Native colleagues. Keep this in mind as you interact with the world. Keep it in mind as you tweet, send the hasty email. Be mindful.