Policy Analysis: CDU’ s Multilevel Innovative Response to the Pandemic by Roberto Vargas, MD
Policy Analysis: CDU’ s Multilevel Innovative Response to the Pandemic by Roberto Vargas, MD
The COVID-19 pandemic is the most devastating public health crisis in modern history with an estimated 179 million cases and 3.9 million deaths worldwide in just over 18 months. In the United States it has claimed over 600,000 lives to date from an estimated over 110 million infections. Unfortunately, similar to many other public health challenges, the pandemic has also disproportionately affected minority and under-resourced communities with a death rate of over 2 to 1 for African Americans and Latinx compared to whites nationally.
Similar ratios racial and ethnic disparities have also been observed locally here in Los Angeles County with even more stark contrasts of eight-to-tenfold differences in mortality across different ZIP Codes and neighborhoods within our region at the height of the crisis. It is in this context in which the faculty staff and trainees of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science demonstrated what it means to be a mission-based Academic Health Sciences University amidst such a crisis. Specifically, our mission to cultivate diverse health professional leaders who are dedicated to social justice and health equity for underserved populations to rooted in an approach that includes outstanding service, education, and research that are all rooted in community engagement.
On March 4, 2020, the governor of California declared a state of emergency as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2( SARS CoV-2) responsible for the clinical syndrome of COVID-19 began to spread throughout the country. At that time the earliest cases were noted in the wealthier parts of Los Angeles and not in the immediate communities around CDU. However, CDU faculty mapping out the early cases also noted that there was also a dearth of testing sites in our surrounding communities. In response to this gap CDU, in conjunction with our clinical affiliates at the Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center, the Office of Second District Supervisor, and the County Fire Department opened one
of the first testing sites for SARS CoV-2 in the region. Moreover, also it was one of the first sites to recognize the need to make testing more accessible for minority and under-resourced communities by having walk-up as opposed to drive through testing, allowing for on-site registration, and to conduct local canvassing and direct outreach to community members by trusted providers. CDU clinical faculty and trainees called all of those who tested positive to provide them clinical guidance to prevent the spread of disease and for those who tested positive at our site we conducted a needs assessment. We found 30 % did not have a primary care doctor, 3 % were in need of immediate housing resources, and 2 % requested mental health support and all were provided real time information for resources to address those needs. Over the course of the pandemic our site tested over 190,000 members of our community over 90 % of whom were African American and Latino.
Concurrently with these early efforts CDU students, faculty, and staff began meeting regularly to identify other ways in which we could be of service to our community which included the development and maintenance of a local community resource guide for COVID-19 related resources and needs heightened during the early phases of the response including housing, loss of income, impact of school closures, and access to food to be shared with local community partners. As the crisis began to demonstrate a disproportionate impact our surrounding communities, CDU faculty and staff began host and conduct public health presentations via Zoom and social media platforms providing information on public health measures to prevent the spread of disease.
We extended these efforts into partnerships with African American and Latinx faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, and local non-profit agencies. Now as the pandemic has shifted to a treatable and vaccine preventable disease, CDU’ s clinical teaching affiliate partner Kedren Health Center and CDU’ s street
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