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		Search Text: Home/< Back ToNews and Events/NHLBI and NIMHD directors to communities of color: To stop COVID-19, identify trusted community leaders; squash misinformation; build trust in science

NHLBI IN THE PRESS
                                        
                    NHLBI and NIMHD directors to communities of color: To stop COVID-19, identify trusted community leaders; squash misinformation; build trust in science
                    
                    November 16, 2020
                                                            Photo of directors Gary Gibbons and Eliseo Pérez-Stable
    As the toll of illness and death from COVID-19 keeps rising across the country and continues to disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities, two NIH leaders are calling on their communities to get the facts and help build trust in science to turn the tide of the pandemic.

“Families and communities don’t count their losses in thousands or hundreds; they count them one-by-one – a father, a teacher, a sister, a friend, a nurse, a son, a Tribal elder, a church member. And these losses hurt,” said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

In a joint op-ed appearing in English andSpanishmedia outlets around the country, the doctors highlight that Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians, and African Americans have rates of severe illness, hospitalization, and death several times higher than whites, according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While these discouraging statistics do not surprise the scientists, with more than 60 years of combined research experience in health disparities, “these awful numbers also feel deeply personal: they represent our friends, our family, our loved ones, too, as our roots are in these very communities—Philadelphia’s African American neighborhoods, Miami’s Cuban immigrant diaspora,” they wrote.

Their call is part of an NIH effort to establish theCommunity Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities, with the specific goal of countering misinformation about COVID-19 and medical research overall, and “ensure that the best, most accurate information reaches these communities, and that they are informed about, and included in, diverse research studies essential for developing safe, effective treatments, and vaccines for all.”
                        Media Coverage
                
    November 16, 2020
      |
            Blackdoctor.org
                The Power of Trust and Truth
                                                                                                
        November 22, 2020
      |
            Black News Channel
                The Power of Trust and Truth
                                                                                                
        November 16, 2020
      |
            Daily Vitamina
                National Institutes Of Health: The Power Of Trust And Truth
                                                                                                
        December 05, 2020
      |
            Dallas Examiner
                The Power of Trust and Truth
                                                                                                
        November 28, 2020
      |
            The Charlotte Post
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