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New Chapter In Our History: Covid-19 Pandemic

Public Health Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health of people all over the world, especially elders, immunocompromised patients, people with underlying conditions like diabetes, obesity, lung diseases, and/or any other organ disease, and many others (CDC, 2022c). The symptoms of COVID-19 include headache, muscle or body aches, sore throat, cough, nausea or vomiting, fever or chills, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, new loss of taste or smell, fatigue, among other symptoms (CDC, 2022e) and if the person has underlying conditions, this increases the chances of developing severe complications which can lead to hospitalization, the use of ventilator, or even death (CDC, 2022a).

Unfortunately, the racial and ethnic minority groups are affected disparately in the pandemic. The Hispanic/Latino population has 1.5 times the risk of getting COVID-19 in comparison with White Non-Hispanic populations (CDC, 2022d). As of March 30th, 2022, in Pennsylvania 33.8% of COVID-19 cases in Berks County have been Hispanic while for Lebanon County Hispanics have accounted for 23.2% of their cases (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2022) and the cases keep rising every day. The hospitalization rates are higher for Hispanic/Latino population in comparison with the non- Hispanic White people and non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander (CDC, 2022b). With this panorama, Penn State REACH was committed to helping these communities and contributing to the well-being of the population.

Solution

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Penn State REACH has been hand in hand with the Penn State College of Medicine in the community assisting in the vaccination clinics for COVID-19 and Flu. The events started in 2021 and thanks to the efforts, the REACH team has been educating the population, not only with COVID-19 information, but also about the Flu. The REACH team created plenty of educational materials that include infographics, live cut-outs, and racks cards in English and Spanish that were disseminated to all our partners. Without a doubt, 2021 was a challenge to educate about getting the flu vaccine because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The population had the misconception that the COVID-19 vaccine would protect them from the flu virus, also a lot of confusion is created because of all the information and misinformation available. Because of that, the REACH team created educational materials that explain in simple terms what is the purpose of

the COVID-19 vaccine. These materials explain different topics starting from what virus the COVID-19 vaccine protects you from, the common symptoms you may feel after getting vaccinated, an example of the possible scenarios that can occur if you are vaccinated versus not vaccinated, facts about the flu, and debunking myths about the flu. Likewise, Penn State REACH created live cut-outs with Community Champions of the different counties of Pennsylvania for COVID-19 using real community members, to remind the reality that everyone in our area should take care of their health in order to keep everyone safe. In that cut-outs REACH include rack cards with frequently asked questions and additional information about the virus and the vaccine. The team sent over 150 champion packets via mail that included a compilation of all the materials for different organizations. Moreover, these were also sent as native files for the partners that wanted to include their logo in the materials and disseminate it to the community.

Penn State REACH also had the amazing opportunity to collaborate in events with our partners in the community. With Penn State Health on October 2nd, 2021, the REACH team had the opportunity to immunize 680 persons, including kids and elders, for the Flu Season in a drive through modality. With all these materials printed, REACH educated hundreds of persons from the chicken processing plant Bell & Evans in a great collaboration to help their community, which is made up of approximately 90% Hispanic/Latino. The REACH team visited them in two different occasions with the purpose of educating and promoting the vaccination event that was planned. The employees had the opportunity to make questions and clarify doubts about vaccines and COVID-19. Bell & Evans organized their vaccination event for COVID-19 in their facilities in Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania and REACH, with our partner Family First Health, said yes to help and collaborate in the logistics, organization and with translation for the Hispanic/ Latino community. The event was held on January 22nd, 2022, and Family First Health had available Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for people’s choosing. The REACH team managed to vaccinate 633 employees; some of them received their first dose and some of them the second dose or booster depending on the vaccine they had received initially.

The vaccination rate in Bell & Evans was 52.9% and that outcome would not have been accomplished without all the support of the partnership and the commitment of the employees to ensure their health and maintain a safe environment in their workplace.

Sustainable Success

The REACH team will continue collaborating with Bell & Evans and all our partnerships to ensure that they receive great resources of information that they can share with everyone. We provided them with our resources so that they continue to disseminate adequate information about COVID-19 and vaccination. We provided live cut-outs to our different partners in different counties for them to place in a space where it was accessible to the community. We will continue with our efforts to guarantee that the population we reach obtains suitable information, keeping in mind that although we may not reach the entire state rapidly, we can change the world one person at time.

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References

  1. (2022a). COVID-19 Information for Specific Groups of People. https://www. cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/index.html
  2. (2022b). Disparities in COVID-19- Associated Hospitalizations. https://www. cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ health-equity/racial-ethnic-disparities/ disparities-hospitalization.html
  3. (2022c). People with Certain Medical Conditions. https://www.cdc. gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html
  4. (2022d). Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death By Race/Ethnicity. https://www.cdc. gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/ investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html
  5. (2022e). Symptoms of COVID-19. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html
  6. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (2022). Pennsylvania COVID-19 Dashboard. https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/ ed2def13f9b045eda9f7d22dbc9b500e

For more information please contact:

Andrea Murray:amurray3@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

Laurie Crawford: lcrawford4@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

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