Cause of death: racism. #GeorgeFloyd (1/)

Tonight I can’t get the voice of one of my patients, a black homeless man, out of my head: “they treat us like stray dogs.” (2/)

On the surface, he was talking about the police clearing people from the subways each night in NYC. But there’s a lot in that “us” and a lot in that “they.” (3/)

And in truth, seems many people treat stray dogs better...half the people commenting on #AmyCooper were more concerned w/the dog than with the man. (4/)

And we see violence on the horrifying video. But I see violence too in this figure, of racial breakdown for unsheltered people in NYC. (5/)

And I see violence (and racism) too in this figure, which shows the proportion share of black Americans overall vs among those living in poverty and living homeless. (Via @naehomelessness). (6/)

For some #COVID19 has been a first glimpse at racial disparities in health that we have long known existed. Racism kills people — sometimes quickly but very often more insidiously. It’s up to all of us to call it out and to do something about it. We cannot ignore this.(End)