Florida Governor Ron DeSantis fired the data scientist in charge of the state's COVID-19 dashboard,

as cases rise in the state after it reopened. The CDC finally issues guidelines on opening

that are acceptable to the White House, after all 50 states to some degree have begun to open

already. Meanwhile, sources in the CDC say that they've been muscled to put politics ahead of

public health. This is America Disactive, and I'm your host, Dr. Abdul-Lsaid.

At the beginning of this pandemic, there was a common refrain you'd hear about the collective

experience of COVID-19. We want to be staying at home as much as we possibly can, keeping that social

distance. It's going to take all of us. Because together you're staying divided through a fall.

We are all in this together, this world, connected through common experience, and now a common mission.

That's a nice thought, but as the COVID-19 pandemic bears down on America,

it's found a certain path. See, disease is never born equally. It almost always follows a very

familiar social gravity, hitting folks on the receiving end of America's inequality and marginalization

hardest of all. It adds injury to insult. As we've discussed throughout this podcast,

there are deep disparities in the experience of COVID-19. But as we talk about how COVID-19 has hit

America, we too often forget the very first Americans. Indeed, COVID-19 has devastated Native

American communities across the country. On tribal lands, even here, social distancing can be hard to do.

Native Americans have long suffered from inadequate health care, and they have higher rates of diseases,

such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, so it can make COVID-19 infections even worse.

No community has been hit harder than Navajo Nation, which has the highest per capita infection rate

in the US, even higher than New York, the epicenter of COVID-19 in America.

We spoke with Navajo National Counselor, Carl Slater, to understand why.

Tell me how bad has COVID-19 been in Navajo Nation, and has it affected you personally?

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