Tag COVID-19

The Community Education Group is pleased to announce that we have been awarded $3.5 million by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide testing and vaccination services for COVID-19, Influenza, HIV, and Viral Hepatitis.

CEG will be releasing more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, please check out our press release:

Rural Health Service Providers Network & Community Education Group to Host Dr. Deborah Birx in Conversation About COVID-19 Preparedness in Rural America

LOST RIVER, W.Va. and RIVERSIDE, Calif. January 12, 2020 – The Rural Health Service Providers Network (RHSPN) and Community Education Group (CEG) will be hosting Dr. Deborah Birx on Tuesday, January 19th, 2020 for a robust conversation about COVID-19 preparedness, vaccination, and prevention in Rural America.

RHSPN Co-Founder & Executive Director, A. Toni Young, moderates a panel including Dr. Deborah Birx, WVU Medicine’s Dr. Clay Marsh, TAN Healthcare’s Dena Hughes, and Case Western Reserve University’s Dr. Blanton S. Tolbert.

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Dr. Deborah Birx
Response Coordinator
Coronavirus Task Force

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Dr. Clay B. Marsh
Vice-President &
Executive Dean
Health Sciences
West Virginia University

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Dena Hughes
CEO
TAN Healthcare

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Dr. Blanton S. Tolbert
Professor
Center for RNA Science & Therapeutics
Case Western Reserve University

18 Partners to Aid in Distribution

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV (October 20, 2020) – The Community Education Group has begun distribution of 2,000 COVID-19 Relief Kits in West Virginia through 18 distribution partners.

CEG’s staff, along with Milan Puskar Health Right and its clients, put together these backpacks on October 19, filling them with reusable masks, hand sanitizer, educational materials, a state resource guide, promotional CEG stickers, and gift cards to Kroger for the purchase of water or other needs.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit West Virginia, one of the first things we were told to do was to wash our hands,” said CEG Founder and Executive Director, A. Toni Young. “Some of the clients our distribution partners serve may be experiencing homelessness or not have running water, leaving them particularly vulnerable to transmission. We felt called to do something.”

CEG received partial funding for the contents of these Relief Kits thanks to generous donations from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (www.aidshealth.org), the Community Access National Network (www.tiicann.org), and ViiV Healthcare (www.viivhealthcare.com).

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CEG’s distribution partners include the following organizations:

Community Education Group (CEG) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization working to eliminate disparities in health outcomes and improve public health in disadvantaged populations and underserved communities.

#CEGInWV has partnered with 18 organizations across West Virginia to distribute 2,000 COVID-19 Relief Packages.

These packages will include a backpack filled with hand sanitizer, face masks, an educational infographic and resource guide, and a $5 Kroger gift card to purchase water.

The call for supplies was so great, we had to quadruple our initial order of 500 backpacks and 1,000 masks, request an additional 1,500 backpacks and 3,000 masks.

Because of the need for more supplies, we are currently awaiting that second order of backpacks and masks.

Distribution will begin in October 2020.

In just two weeks, we secured an unprecedented 18 distribution partners for our COVID-19 Relief Packages.

You can find a list of our distribution partners, below, as well as links to their respective websites.

Join #CEGInWV on our first West Virginia Statewide Stakeholder Meeting on Tuesday, September 1st, 2020 at 12:00 PM Eastern.

Interested parties can still register by clicking on the link, below, or download the meeting agenda.

#CEGInWV is in the process of preparing #COVID19 Relief Packages for distribution to West Virginia residents across the state.

These packages will be backpacks containing face masks, hand sanitizer, personal hygiene supplies, educational materials on COVID-19, #HIV, and #ViralHepatitis testing, a localized resource guide (relative to the distribution points), and a gift card for purchasing food.

In just two weeks, we have secured an unprecedented 18 distribution partners for our COVID-19 Relief Packages.

We had initially planned on distributing only 500 packages, but ultimately received requests for 1,535.

As such, we have ordered a second round of supplies to put together a second round of distribution.

Round One will begin sometime in mid- to late-September, depending upon how quickly supplies arrive to put together the packages.

You can find a list of our distribution partners, below, as well as links to their respective websites.

Guest Blog By: Dr. Matt Cox

Two facts to start with:

1. At the end of July, the CDC forecasted that the rate of COVID deaths is going to accelerate over the next month (at least).
2. 2020 marks the 50^th anniversary of the Clean Air Act.

We’re in the middle of a global pandemic, with a respiratory virus wreaking havoc on the American population and its economy. The human toll continues to grow in many communities, cities, and states; deaths and hospitalizations are up, to say nothing of the impacts of social isolation, quarantines, and the recession.

How is that connected to the passage of one of America’s most important environmental laws? Simply put, if the Clean Air Act had never been passed, these COVID outcomes would almost certainly be much worse.

In 2011, the EPA projected that the Clean Air Act would help the country dodge 200,000 heart attacks and 230,000 premature deaths this year, although I’m pretty sure they didn’t factor “global pandemic” into their model.

Economists, engineers, and policy analysts have estimated the human damage wrought by air pollution, coming in with a price tag over $750 billion a year, or about 5% of US GDP.

These costs are almost entirely the result of the impact on public health – lost workdays, heart attacks, strokes, and premature deaths. How many COVID deaths would not have occurred if we had better air quality? Unfortunately, our air quality has recently been getting worse, impacting about half of the US population.

One focus of my organization is trying to improve outcomes across the country, community by community, city by city, state by state, by working on energy and environmental policy. Energy consumption is a major cause of air pollution across this country, and the impacts are not randomly distributed. Where you live and what you live in are major drivers of energy costs, and systemic racism in the American context has led to frontline communities bearing the brunt of these costs.

This is not new in American life – the environmental justice movement started in a rural county of North Carolina in the early 80s. These concerns are increasingly studied through energy burdens – the percent of household income spent on energy bills.

Structural and systemic causes drive low-income and communities of color to face higher barriers to accessing opportunities to alleviate high utility burdens [1] [2] [3], including low wages, the wealth gap, and other financial barriers [4], historical governmental policies such as redlining [5], housing quality [6], and even higher costs for energy-efficient equipment from neighborhood retailers [7]. Utility bills are also the most commonly-cited reason that people turn to short-term loan products, contributing to chronic poverty in the United States [8]. And ultimately, this circles back to health again – in addition to the toll on mental health such levels of stress can have, a fifth of American households report skipping a meal or not filling a prescription in order to keep the lights on.

So that’s a lot of doom and gloom. What do we do about it? Clean energy has a lot to offer this conversation and demonstrates how so much of this is tied together. From 2016 through 2019, we were asked to assess the public health impact of one of the most impactful energy efficiency programs of the past decade – the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge. We utilized our AI-enabled modeling of the US energy system to assess the impacts, and the results were eye-opening.

This voluntary program in Atlanta, Georgia, had public health benefits as far away as Maine and Minnesota, and in 2017, the biggest beneficiary of the whole effort wasn’t even Atlanta – it was Birmingham, Alabama! The effort had also added jobs to the city and grown the economy.

We’ve also done recent studies of full-on clean energy transitions in states with significant Appalachian footprints – North Carolina (cool video summary) and Virginia. In North Carolina, a big push would save folks $100 a year, create over 100,000 jobs, reduce every major pollutant, and in the process reduce missed work days by 255 YEARS while saving 1200 lives. In Virginia, we showed that a transition to a fully-decarbonized power sector would save Virginians over $3.5 billion in health costs, while also saving households thousands of dollars on energy bills and being an overall cost-effective strategy. This message was ultimately compelling enough that it became state law in early 2020, when Governor Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

There’s plenty to be optimistic about because we have the tools and the knowledge to make things better. There’s also plenty to be aware of, because there’s so much work to do to capture those opportunities to make a better world. Making the world more just in terms of health outcomes, clean energy, and many other areas can be a massive win-win…if we muster the political and economic will to bring it into being.

To learn more about Greenlink Analytics, please click on their logo to visit their website, or on any of their social media links

References

[1] Ross, L., A. Drehobl, and B. Stickles. 2018. The High Cost of Energy in Rural America: Household Energy Burdens and Opportunities for Energy Efficiency. Washington, DC: ACEEE. www.aceee.org/research-report/u1806.

[2] Jessel, S., S. Sawyer, and D. Hernández. 2019. “Energy, Poverty, and Health in Climate Change: A Comprehensive Review of an Emerging Literature.” Frontiers Public Health 7: 356. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6920209/.

[3] Berry, C., C. Hronis, and M. Woodward. 2018. “Who’s Energy Insecure? You Might be Surprised.” In Proceedings of the ACEEE 2018 Summary Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 13: 1–14.

[4] Jargowsky, P. 2015. Architecture of Segregation: Civil Unrest, the Concentration of Poverty, and Public Policy. New York and Rutgers-Camden: Century Foundation, and Center for Urban Research and Education. apps.tcf.org/architecture-of-segregation.

[5] Rothstein, R. 2017. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Liveright Publishing.

[6] Bednar, D., T. Reames, and G. Keoleian. 2017. “The Intersection of Energy Justice: Modeling the Spatial, Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Patterns of Urban Residential Heating Consumption and Efficiency in Detroit, Michigan.” Energy and Buildings 143: 25–34. doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.03.028.

[7] Reames, T., M. Reiner, M. Stacey. 2018. “An incandescent truth: Disparities in energy-efficient lighting availability and prices in an urban U.S. county.” Applied Energy Vol 218. doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.02.143.

[8] Levy, R. and J. Sledge. 2012. A Complex Portrait: An Examination of Small-Dollar Credit Consumers. Chicago. Center for Financial Services Innovation.

Disclaimer: Blog posts on CEG’s Community Perspectives blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the Community Education Group, its grantors, its corporate sponsors, or its organizational partners, but rather they provide a neutral platform whereby each author serves to promote open, honest discussion about issues specific to their personal expertise, lived experience, and perspective. Please note that some of the content on Community Perspectives may be graphic due to the nature of the issues being addressed by the author.

I’ve been thinking about science versus politics, especially since clashes between the White House and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are in the news so much these days.

It’s important that we defend science. After all, whether we are trying to solve COVID-19, HIV, Substance Use Disorder, or even racial and class inequality, it’s science that will undergird successful strategies. But we also have to defend science because science is how we explore, understand, and unpack what we believe to be true. It’s right there in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” The United States was born as a hypothesis: Everybody deserves equal rights, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and here’s how we give it to them.

How do you test a hypothesis? Perform an experiment. George Washington called the new American government a “great experiment.” And this country is an experiment in many ways. The whole history of the United States has been our ongoing attempt, as a people, to “form a more perfect Union.” To figure it out. To get it right.

The experiment has revealed some important truths. Like you can’t have equality and liberty and democracy if you take away land from Native people, enslave Black people, deny a voice to women and poor people. And when you finally stop doing those things? You can’t just pretend they never happened and magically have a system that will be fair and equitable for everybody. Not after generations of restricting, for instance, where Black people could live, go to school, and work, making it nearly impossible for many to emerge from poverty, purchase homes, or pass along wealth.

You can see people out there right now, absorbing that data. Look at the diversity in age, race, and class among people who are in support of Black Lives Matter. More people than ever before now understand that systems in this country are biased, and need reform. Not just the police and the criminal justice system, but most of our systems and institutions. That’s why we’re in the midst of social unrest, leading to social realignment. Because people are paying attention. They are looking at the data. They are seeing Black people getting profiled, stopped, arrested, beaten, shot, imprisoned, and executed at disproportionate rates compared with other people. They are recognizing the bias within systems and institutions, spoken or unspoken, and they’re saying, “Okay, it’s not working. Let’s try things a different way.”

Some people feel threatened by calls for change. They believe trying things a different way means admitting the experiment was a failure. What they don’t understand is: America is not the product of an experiment. America is the experiment. And that experiment is still playing itself out. It is still going on, every day. That’s how science works. If the data proves your hypothesis wrong, you admit

that you still haven’t found the best way to guarantee people equal rights—and then you keep experimenting until you figure it out. Until you get it right.

Calling for change is not rejecting America. Rejecting science is rejecting America. Because America is science. That’s why it’s so bizarre and inappropriate when people criticize Dr. Fauci for changing his positions over time. That’s what a good scientist does! Hypothesis: Here’s how we protect people from COVID-19. Then you look at the data and adjust the hypothesis as the experiment reveals the truth.

Here’re some more data: You can’t stop a pandemic like COVID-19 if you’re only worrying about yourself—if only half the people in the country are practicing social distancing and wearing a mask. You have to think about family members, neighbors, strangers. You might think everything’s fine because you’re asymptomatic, but science tells us that wearing a mask and social distancing is how you work on behalf of the greater good, your country, the world. Science tells us to take care of each other.

Politics does the opposite. Modern politics is all about dividing people up into Us and Them, and no need to care about Them. In politics, no truths are self-evident and the only important data is whatever confirms what we want to believe. But simply insisting “Everything’s fine” about COVID works no better than simply insisting everything’s fine about race, justice, and equality. The data says otherwise.

So what I’ve been thinking about is how America is the greatest scientific experiment in history. Being loyal to that experiment means asking: Did things go the way we expected? If not, what did we learn and how can we apply that information to making things better?

America is science. We can’t let politics get in the way of that. That’s why I support Dr. Anthony Fauci. All Americans should.

By: Amanda G. S. Morgan

The opioid epidemic has become a large part of the lives of most Appalachians. If we haven’t been affected directly by it, then we know someone who has been.

But now, with COVID-19, the opioid epidemic is poised to become an even bigger issue.

Supply chains have broken down, largely due to quarantines and border closings (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2020, p. 1-6). While most would think that addicts would just be forced into withdrawal from such an event, it has only changed how opioid addicts get their “fix”. Heroin shortages have been noted across the world, so other drugs may be used as replacements or additives. Fentanyl is commonly added to heroin to increase its potency, but with the shortages of heroin, fentanyl is a likely replacement (Kaur, 2020; UNODC, 2020, p.4). This, alone, could lead to overdoses.

Many people currently receiving treatment for substance use disorders have experienced significant changes to many of their support networks. While many patients who are compliant with their medication-assisted treatment therapies have been granted the ability to get increased days supplies of their prescription medications (Roy, 2020a; Roy 2020b), regularly scheduled face-to-face follow up appointments have largely been transitioned to telemedicine or online appointments. Support groups that were previously only accessible by meeting in-person have been forced to switch to online meetings (Kaur, 2020; National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], 2020). Zoloft, an anti-depressant that is sometimes used as an adjunct therapy for substance use disorder treatment, has become a part of the FDA’s drug shortages list since the start of the coronavirus pandemic (Berger, 2020).

These changes could lead to many people who are currently receiving treatment for various substance use disorders to turn to illicit substances again, especially if their access to their normal treatments is limited. The effects of this could range significantly, including recurring relapses, overdoses (including death), disease transmission, and more.

Many affected by opioid misuse are already in less-than-stable situations: homelessness, job loss, and stigma affect many people who suffer from substance use disorders.

Since many assistance programs are closed for services during the pandemic, drug users who participated in needle exchange programs may not have access to sterile needles. This may likely lead to an increase in bloodborne diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis C (Kaur 2020).

Even without the increased risk for relapse, people who have used high dose opioids are at higher risk from COVID-19 simply from the negative effects that long-term high-dose opioid use can have on the lungs and heart. Opioid use also has the inherent risk of respiratory depression, as well, so a respiratory disease, such as the respiratory effects of COVID-19, could cause low to no oxygenation of the brain. The effects could range from brain damage to death (NIDA, 2020).

Many cities across the United States have reported overdose rates that may be increasing as the coronavirus lockdowns continue. Many harm reduction services, such as needle exchange and naloxone distribution programs, have had to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic (Kaur, 2020).

Not enough data is available yet to conclude if the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting shutdowns have or will cause an increase in opioid overdoses. But we do know that many people may not have access to their support networks. They may not have access to many of the programs that are available to help mitigate risks, such as bloodborne pathogens from needle sharing or group therapy and support sessions. They may not have access to the substances they normally abuse and have turned to other illicit substances that may be more potent or otherwise less safe (Kaur, 2020).

During these times, if you know someone who suffers from substance use disorder, it is crucial to check on them. Social contact certainly will help them feel less isolated, even if it is just a phone call or a video chat. Checking in on them could also help, especially if they live alone. If someone who lives alone overdoses, they won’t be able to administer life-saving naloxone to themselves if they overdose (NIDA, 2020; Roy, 2020b).

While the coronavirus pandemic is certainly quite troubling in and of itself, the fallout from it could certainly have far-reaching effects. Some of our already vulnerable populations, including those suffering from opioid use disorder, could see even more effects than many people realize. Because someone prone to opioid abuse does not have access to their support systems, normal treatments, or drug of choice, they may become desperate and resort to other means to get their fix.

If you or a loved one need help in locating resources to help with opioid addiction, please contact the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

References

Berger, M. (2020, June 4). Shortages of Antidepressant Zoloft Reported in the Midst of COVID-19. New York, NY: Healthline: Health News. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/shortages-of-antidepressant-zoloft-reported-in-the-midst-of-covid-19-pandemic

Kaur, H. (2020, May 7). The opioid epidemic was already a national crisis. Covid-19 could be making things worse. Atlanta, GA: CNN: Health. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/health/opioid-epidemic-covid19-pandemic-trnd/index.html

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020, June 29). COVID-19 Resources. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse: Drug Topics: Comorbidity. https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/comorbidity/covid-19-resources

Roy, L. (2020, April 21). Treating Substance Use Disorders in the Era of COVID-19. New York, NY: Psychology Today: Substance Use, Stigma, and Society. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/substance-use-stigma-and-society/202004/treating-substance-use-disorders-in-the-era-covid-19

Roy, L. (2020, May 28). Collision Of Crises: How Covid-19 Will Propel Drug Overdose From Bad To Worse. Jersey City, NJ: Forbes: Healthcare. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lipiroy/2020/05/23/collision-of-crises-how-covid-19-will-propel-drug-overdose-from-bad-to-worse/

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2020, May 7). COVID-19 and the Drug Supply Chain: From Production and Trafficking to Use. Vienna, Austria: United Nations: Office on Drugs and Crime. Retrieved July 6, 2020 from: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/covid/Covid-19-and-drug-supply-chain-Mai2020.pdf.

Disclaimer: Blog posts on CEG’s Community Perspectives blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the Community Education Group, its grantors, its corporate sponsors, or its organizational partners, but rather they provide a neutral platform whereby each author serves to promote open, honest discussion about issues specific to their personal expertise, lived experience, and perspective. Please note that some of the content on Community Perspectives may be graphic due to the nature of the issues being addressed by the author.

Join Community Education Group’s A. Toni Young, as she hosts distinguished panelists in a discussion about race, class, COVID-19, and more in CEG’s second webinar of the summer, Where Do We Go.

Join us on Thursday, July 23rd, 2020, @ 3:00 PM Eastern for a phenomenal conversation including some of the greatest minds in racial equity in public health.

Meet the Panelists

Linda Villarosa is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, covering race, health and inequality and a former executive editor at Essence Magazine. Her 2018 Times Magazine cover story on infant and maternal mortality in black mothers and babies was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

Last year she contributed to the ground breaking 1619 Project. Her essay examined physiological myths, based on race, that have endured since slavery. Most recently, her April cover story examined race, health disparities and covid-19 through the lens of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club of New Orleans. Linda teaches journalism at the City College of New York and is writing the book Under the Skin: Race, Inequality and the Health of a Nation, which will be published by Doubleday in 2021.

Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, holds the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair at Northwestern University, the first journalism professorship in the world endowed to focus on LGBTQ people. He is also a professor of journalism in Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism His writing has been widely published in the New York Times, Guardian, Village Voice, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Slate, Souls, the Journal of American History and in ten book anthologies. Named Journalist of the Year by the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists’ Association in 2012 and one of the most influential LGBTQ people of the year by Out magazine in 2019 , Dr. Thrasher holds a BFA in filmmaking and a PhD in American Studies from New York University. His research on race, H.I.V./AIDS and the criminalization of sickness has been awarded grants from the Alfred P. Sloan, Gannett and Ford Foundations. He is currently writing his book, The Viral Underclass: How Racism, Ableism and Capitalism Plague Humans on the Margins, for the Celadon Books imprint of Macmillan Publishing.

• A Black Body on Trial: The HIV Conviction of “Tiger Mandingo” – Buzzfeed, November 2015
• H.I.V. Is Coming To Rural America – New York Times, December 2019
• An Uprising Comes From America’s Viral Underclass – Slate, June 2020

Alphonso David is President of the Human Rights Campaign. Alphonso is an accomplished and nationally recognized LGBTQ civil rights lawyer and advocate. He’s the first civil rights lawyer, the first Black man and first person of color to serve as president of HRC in the organization’s 40-year history.

He has been at the forefront of the movement for LGBTQ equality for more than a decade at the national and state level, serving and as Counsel to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as New York Deputy Secretary and Counsel for Civil Rights, and as a staff attorney at the Lambda Legal.

LGBTQ Organizations Unite to Combat Racial Violence – Sign-On Letter

Dr. David Campt

With more than 25 years of professional experience, Dr. David Campt (@thedialogueguy) is considered a national expert in the areas of inclusion and equity, cultural competence, and intergroup dialogue.

His insights about the keys to more inclusive and effective institutions and communities have been sought by small executive boards of fewer than a dozen to large-scale summits involving thousands of people. His clients have varied widely, and have included the US military, The White House, large corporations, international organizations, foundations, governments, universities, national associations, and non-profit groups.

David is the author of a number of books including The Little Book of Dialogue for Difficult Subject (2007) and Read the Room for Real: How A Simple Technology Creates Better Meetings. (2015). In early 2016, he created a project called the Ally Conversation Toolkit (ACT), which has engaged thousands of people in person and on line. Under this initiative, David has written three books – White Ally Toolkit Workbook, a supplement for the workbook called the Discussion Group Leaders Guide, and the Compassionate Warrior Boot Camp for White Allies. David’s work on dismantling racism has been featured by a number of prominent media outlets, such as Think Progress and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

White Ally Toolket – https://www.whiteallytoolkit.com/

A Man for the Times: David Campt, top race relations expert, sees progress – Rockingham Now

Dr. Carl Dieffenbach is the Director of DAIDS at the NIAID. DAIDS supports a global research portfolio to advance biological knowledge of HIV/AIDS, its related co-infections, and co-morbidities. With the goal of ending AIDS, the Division fosters research to: 1) reduce HIV incidence through the development of effective vaccine and biomedical prevention strategies; 2) improve therapy and cure HIV infection; 3) treat and/or prevent the co-infections with the highest disease burden and 4) foster partnerships to implement effective interventions at scale.

Since February 2020, I have worked tirelessly to bring effective prevention and treatment strategies in the clinical evaluation for COVID-19. These include direct acting antivirals, preventive vaccines and monoclonal antibodies directed against the SARS-CoV-2 to prevent and treat COVID.

The search for an HIV vaccine, the journey continues – Journal of the International AIDS Society

CEG is a national organization that offers local programs and policy solutions.

We serving diverse populations, prioritizing indigenous populations and populations in need

CEG’s work includes Direct Service programs, Policy work, and Capacity Building