Covid is an opportunity to forever change the U.S. public health equity

“The problem right now is that he’s talking about it as an opportunity,” Brunson says, noting that white men voted for by Republicans in particular don’t get vaccinated against the rest of the U.S. population. “Focusing on the things that are available takes away from the focus on serious U.S. access problems.”

A success story happened in Philadelphia, thanks to the effective collaboration between the two health systems and the leaders of the black community. Admittedly, the process of online registration was particularly difficult for the elderly or those without Internet access, Penn Medicine and Mercy Catholic Medical Center created a text message-based recording system and an interactive 24/7 voice recording option that can be used from a landline to answer questions from patients before appointments. Working with community leaders, the program conducted its first clinic in a church and included 550 people.

“We’ve worked very closely with community leaders and since then all clinics have evolved in terms of design,” says Lauren Hahn, head of innovation at Penn Health Center for Digital Health.

Hahn hoped that by first introducing community members, the program would make people who came to make their shot feel that the clinic was made for them. After the appointment was completed, patients were sent home with resources such as a helpline number that they could call if they had any questions about side effects.

“We want to make sure we get into this service and offer it and then we’ll leave,” he says.

The data should focus on practice

The researchers say that having complete data on who the vaccine is – and is not – the extent of vaccination and prevent problems from darkening. Data gaps have been a problem since the beginning of the pandemic, with few states reporting cases and deaths according to race. Although Joe Biden emphasized the equitable distribution of vaccines as a priority, the CDC reported that it has racial and ethnic data for 56.7% of those vaccinated.

Not everyone wants to make more information public, however. In Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley says there may be resistance to the collection and publication of data showing different health outcomes among race groups. “We have to say that racism has been an issue,” Crowley says. But, he adds, “Look at the data. It will tell you a story “.

He created his own county covid-19 arbela Crowley says accurate race data was reported before many other jurisdictions in the state. The county allowed Milwaukee to work with the city to open special residential areas in certain zip codes.

“We didn’t find a silver bullet in all of this,” Crowley says. “But in the end, we know the data tells a story, and we have to use that data.”

Because the data is public, it can also be used by other pandemic response groups outside the government. Benjamin Weston, director of medical services at the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, says covid-19 data should be transparent and accessible so that community teams and academic researchers know where to focus their efforts.

The whiteboard has helped them, in a rigorous way, to see that the hardest-hit communities have faced broader health challenges. After seeing that the rates were usually high in places with heart problems, the region decided to offer RCP training at vaccination sites. EMS division director Dan Pojar says about 10,000 people expect to get RCP training that way.

“That’s an opportunity for us to work with other health systems to bring different education and initiatives to those communities,” Pojar says. “It’s Covid who really pushed this kind of study.”

From now on it will be harder, not easier

Public health and equity researchers were not surprised by the different impacts the pandemic has had on certain communities, according to Stephanie McClure, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama. Racial and economic health inequalities have the potential to become a national and local focus — CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in April. declare racism is a “serious threat to public health,” but the tide has not yet changed, McClure says.