Abstract
Despite the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine in reducing mortality and illness severity, racial inequities in vaccination uptake persist. Among individuals with rheumatologic conditions who are often immunocompromised, the impact of disparities in preventive care threatens to widen existing inequities in adverse outcomes related to COVID-19 infection. There exists an urgent need to develop interventions that reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and promote vaccine uptake. We leveraged long-standing community-academic partnerships in two cities to develop a curriculum that will be part of an intervention to decrease COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within Black communities. We describe the collaborative efforts that resulted in the creation of two interactive virtual curricula with similar core content but different theoretical lenses. One lens uses a racial justice approach to acknowledge the effects of historical and current structural racism on vaccine hesitancy, the other utilizes a traditional biomedical lens. In a future trial, we will compare the efficacy of these curricula to empower Black individuals identified as Popular Opinion Leaders (POLs), or trusted community members with large social networks, to disseminate health information to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Strategies to reduce racial inequities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake must begin with accurately identifying and empathetically acknowledging the root causes of vaccine hesitancy, as well as addressing nuanced concerns that drive vaccine avoidance among Black individuals. Community engagement and collaboration are central in creating interventions to develop and test culturally relevant strategies, as observed with our curricula, that bridge scientific efforts with community concerns and practices.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1493331 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Public Health |
| Volume | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2024 |
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institute of Health under award number R01 AR080089-01A1 to Northwestern (MPIs: Ramsey-Goldman; contact PI and Feldman). Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman served as Chair of the Collaborative Initiatives Committee for the American College of Rheumatology. She consults for Merck, Biogen, Cabaletta, Exagen Diagnostics, Ampel Solutions, Clarivate, Upstart Research all less than $10\u202FK. She has consults for Duke University and the State University of New York, Syracuse. She is supported by the John P. Gallagher Research Professor of Rheumatology at Northwestern University, and she serves on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Lupus Foundation of America and on the Site Selection & Evaluation Committee for Lupus Therapeutics, an arm of the Lupus Research Alliance. She has received honoraria for lectures from Georgetown University, AstraZeneca, and the International Lupus meeting in Korea. Candace Feldman serves on the DEI Task Force for the Arthritis Foundation and the DEI Committee for the American College of Rheumatology. She consults for OM1, Inc., Bain Capital, LP, the Lupus Foundation of America, and the American College of Rheumatology, and previously consulted for Harvard Pilgrim and the University of Alabama. She serves on the Editorial Board of Arthritis Care & Research, as an Associate Editor for Lupus Science & Medicine and on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Lupus Foundation of America. Chisa Nosamiefan serves as a consultant with The Light Collective and is a member of the Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital Patient Advisory Board.
Keywords
- African American/black
- community academic partnerships
- community health promotion
- COVID-19
- health equity
- rheumatic and autoimmune disease
- vaccine hesitancy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
