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The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t have an effect on everybody equally. Communities of colour, particularly Latino (together with undocumented individuals), Black, and Native American teams, in addition to folks with low incomes, skilled a lot greater charges of an infection, hospitalization, and loss of life.
Analysis has proven that a number of key elements worsened well being inequalities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Crowded housing, dense neighborhoods, and site performed a significant function in how the virus unfold. Systemic racism, discrimination, and unstable jobs made some communities much more in danger.
A brand new report, printed in Well being Expectations, highlights how the Share, Belief, Manage, Companion COVID-19 California Alliance, often known as STOP COVID-19 CA, helped deal with these challenges.
Fashioned in 2020 as a part of the federal pandemic response, the community introduced collectively 11 universities, together with the College of California, Riverside, and greater than 75 group organizations throughout 14 counties. Collectively, they centered on reaching communities most affected by COVID-19 and bettering entry to dependable data, testing, and vaccination, whereas laying the inspiration for long-term well being fairness.
“Our evaluation looks at how a statewide network helped strengthen partnerships between communities and researchers so they could work together to tackle health inequalities in underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic,” mentioned Ann Cheney, senior creator of the report and a professor of social drugs, inhabitants, and public well being on the UC Riverside College of Drugs.
“What made this network different was its community-first approach. Local organizations and grassroots leaders didn’t just participate; they led.”
From shaping analysis inquiries to amassing information and writing stories, group companions contributed at each step, serving to be certain that the work stayed grounded in real-life group wants and sociocultural and financial contexts, quite than being pushed by tutorial principle alone.
Between August 2020 and December 2021, STOP COVID-19 CA surveyed greater than 11,000 Californians, carried out dozens of focus teams, participated in scientific trials, and arranged lots of of occasions—from city halls to vaccination clinics. Neighborhood well being staff, often known as promotoras, helped design and ship well being data in ways in which resonated with native tradition and language.
Cheney defined that in 2024 the community used a participatory and community-based analysis technique known as Ripple Results Mapping to raised perceive the community’s affect.
The strategy confirmed that the community not solely improved COVID-19 response efforts, but in addition strengthened relationships between group and tutorial companions, improved communication, and constructed lasting expertise for future collaboration.
“Our report also points to bigger lessons,” Cheney mentioned. “While the network made significant progress, participants noted the need for broader changes, especially in how universities work with community groups and how funding is shared. Ultimately, STOP COVID-19 CA showed that when communities are respected as leaders and equal partners, the results are more effective and more lasting.”
The report discovered the community helped communities not solely reply to an emergency but in addition start to reshape public well being responses to raised serve these most impacted by inequality. In response to the report, STOP COVID-19 CA stays a mannequin for a way researchers and communities can work collectively to advance well being fairness.
“By combining academic expertise with local knowledge and leadership, the network showed what is possible when collaboration is rooted in trust, respect, and shared purpose,” Cheney mentioned.
“Beyond helping with urgent needs like COVID-19 testing and vaccines, the network also laid the groundwork for lasting changes to support ongoing community involvement in health equity research. It stands as a model for how diverse communities—across cultures, languages, and regions—can come together with researchers to tackle health disparities.”
Cheney’s co-authors on the report are tutorial companions at UCR and UC San Diego, in addition to group companions at Conchita Servicios de la Comunidad in Mecca, California, and International Motion Analysis Middle in San Diego.
Extra data:
Evelyn Vázquez et al, Ripple Results Mapping: Evaluating Multilevel Views and Impacts of a Statewide Neighborhood–Tutorial Partnership Community on Covid‐19 Well being Disparities, Well being Expectations (2025). DOI: 10.1111/hex.70446
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College of California – Riverside
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California partnership aided COVID-19 response and well being fairness, report finds (2025, October 6)
retrieved 6 October 2025
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