NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities

The Chicagoland COVID Collaborative is a partnership of academic and community health disparities experts working together to improve COVID-19 vaccination and engagement in best therapeutic care for low-income Black and Latinx communities in the Chicago area. The Chicagoland COVID Collaborative is applying to join the National Institutes of Health Community Engagement Research Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities program. CEAL research teams are currently working in twelve states to provide trustworthy information through active community engagement and outreach to the people hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Chicago, the Black and Latinx communities have borne a disproportionate brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rates of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (as of Feb 21, 2021) show substantial racial/ethnic differences and are greatest among Latinx (10,835) and Black (5263) residents, outpacing those for White (4888) residents. Percent of total deaths from COVID-19 are similarly higher among Black (38.5%) and Latinx (33.4%) residents, compared to White (22.0%) residents. Early data on vaccine rates show higher rates of hesitancy among Black and Latinx adults. Chicago has been at the forefront of the fight against these disparities from the beginning. In March of 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot formed the Racial Equity Rapid Response Team (RERRT) to ensure data-driven, community-based and community-driven mitigation of COVID-19 illness and death in Black and Brown neighborhoods. The goals of the RERRT are to flatten the COVID-19 mortality curve in Black and Brown communities in Chicago and build a groundwork for future work to address longstanding and systemic inequities. The Chicago Vaccine Corp was also created in November of 2020 to address issues of equity and access with vaccine roll out. With representation from a wide range of stakeholders, the group meets weekly to review data and issues related to vaccine distribution. The Chicagoland COVID Collaborative will leverage this existing infrastructure, the city’s scientific expertise, and our extensive community partnerships to support current and future COVID vaccination and care efforts. We will use adaptive designs and implementation science techniques to support the design and evaluation of the multi-level interventions being conducted by our institutions and partners. Specific emphasis will be placed on addressing individual and system barriers related to distrust, misinformation, and access related to long-standing structural racism.