Project 2VIDA! SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Intervention Delivery for Adults in Southern California

As of January 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 89 million cases of COVID-19 (SARS- CoV-2) have been confirmed and have resulted in more than 1.9 million deaths globally. Currently, the United States (U.S.) is the country with the largest number of infections and deaths due to COVID-19, with a total of 22 million infections and 373,167 deaths. Furthermore, early findings that have examined COVID-19 demographics show that racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are bearing a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases and deaths irrespective of geographic region. While there's no evidence that people of color (POC) have genetic or biological factors that make them more likely to be affected by COVID-19, they are more likely to have underlying health conditions, live in multi-generational homes, live in densely populated areas, have limited access to healthcare, and have jobs that are considered essential and involve interaction with the public. All of these factors contribute to higher rates of infection and adverse outcomes due to COVID-19. Although COVID-19 preventive behaviors such as hand washing, mask wearing, and social distancing have been shown to be effective in curbing the spread of the virus, acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines will be instrumental to ending the pandemic. However, public confidence in vaccination is fragile, especially among racial and ethnic minorities. To this end, we have formed an intervention working group comprised of representatives from community and academic organizations to address challenges in COVID-19 vaccination uptake among Latino and African American (AA) communities in Southern California by using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Project 2VIDA! (SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Intervention Delivery for Adults in Southern California), is a multilevel intervention to address individual, social, and contextual factors related to access to, and acceptance of, the COVID-19 vaccine among Latino and AA adults (>18 years old) across six highly affected communities in Southeast San Diego. 2VIDA! seeks to implement and assess a COVID-19 vaccination protocol to increase interest and uptake of COVID-19 vaccine, provide COVID-19 vaccines in the community, and establish a model for the rapid vaccination of Latino and AA adults that could be generalizable to other highly affected communities. 2VIDA! builds on our previous CBPR efforts and centers on conducting COVID-19 community outreach and health promotion, Individual awareness and education, and linkages to medical and supportive services and offering the COVID-19 vaccine to Latino and AA adults (>18 years old) in community health centers (CHC) and mini-vaccination stations in communities highly impacted by the pandemic in San Diego County.