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Think about the people closest to you. Tell us about how the coronavirus has affected them, and their life.

I think of what's happened with my sister-in-law. She's from a different economic background from my immediate family. Although we are all high risk, being Black, and some of us are obese, or even have chronic conditions, there are big differences. Our family is mostly upper middle class. Her family has not yet reached that stage. Our family has stayed home, some of us working from home, and we have been well. In her family, both her mother, and her mother's husband got COVID-19 from a health rehabilitation facility. I watched her deal with all of the stories I'd been hearing about on the news. She could not visit her relatives. As they were quite sick, it was hard to get information on their treatment plans or prognosis. Thankfully, her mother recovered. Her husband had many more health issues, and died. I was overwhelmed as I watched her family say goodbye to him while he was on a ventilator, and probably not responsive. His son had to say goodbye to his father using Facetime on a cell phone. It was heartbreaking. My sister-in-law was also the only person in our family to get furloughed, then laid off from their job due to the pandemic. So recognizing that there is a heavy racial element to outcomes during this time, it's also quite evident how classism or education and wealth play roles in our social constructs. I recognize the good fortune that our lifestyle has provided myself and my immediate family. But I get angry when I see how badly people fare in the same country when they have just a few less resources. And it makes me grieve for the "greatest country on earth" because I can plainly see that we've been lying to ourselves, and in so many ways the US is in much worse shape than many 2nd and 3rd world countries.

September 22, 2020

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