Every week, The People’s CDC, a coalition of public health practitioners, scientists, healthcare workers, educators, and advocates working to reduce the harmful impacts of COVID-19, releases a weather report. The volunteer-run organization sifts through data that’s becoming harder and harder to find on the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website. In a clear report, they inform citizens about transmission levels, new variants, wastewater levels, and hospitalizations, providing us with a snapshot of how the virus is progressing.

Life is made up of two kinds of things: the real — the things that are, and the unreal — the things that might be. For Haitian-born Brooklynite Yrbenka Arthus, the passion, drive and unstoppable energy that fuels her comes from her ability to “Feel the Unreal” — to imagine what might be and make it a reality. 

Centuries are like decades. The first few years of one are mostly indistinguishable from the last few years of the one before. But eventually, new ideas and directions develop — often by recognizing the limitations of what came before — and slowly, an identity emerges. We are now firmly into the second decade of the 21st century. Despite several pivotal moments, this century has yet to fully define itself or honestly evaluate the problems that have developed with ideas, systems, and paradigms that have run their course — and we continue to suffer for it. The year 2020 was a masterclass in the shortcomings of our society in many areas that we consider permanent. But they all had beginnings, so they can have ends. Here are a few things we need to admit that we’ve outgrown in the 21st century.

There is an old saying that goes: when white people get a cold, Black people get the flu. And unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak has proved this to be true. More than 100,000 Americans have lost their lives due to COVID-19. And 40 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the last 10 weeks as they continue to lose work hours or lose their jobs altogether, affecting their wages and access to health care.