YOUR FUTURE HEALTH STARTS TODAY

DR. SHELDON JORDAN SHARES

DATA ON THE PUBLIC HEALTH DISPARITIES FOR NEW MEXICO’S COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

We all know that there are disparities in how certain communities were affected by and treated for COVID-19. At the height of the pandemic, NMDOH Better Together and WEAVE NM started an ambitious healthcare research study called to address the “challenges BIPOC communities [face regarding] vaccination rules and clinical study participation.” WEAVE stands for Wide Engagement for Assessing COVID-19 Vaccination Equity. The New Mexico Black Leadership Council (NMBLC) worked with the NMDOH Better Together and WEAVE NM teams to send out a survey to Albuquerque’s Black communities and collect data on the inequitable cultural representation, healthcare access, and public policy our communities suffer.

Dr. Sheldon Jordan, a biomedical scientist and founder of Peptineo, then teamed up with NMBLC executive director Cathryn McGill to craft a white paper summarizing the findings. A “white paper” is a report that a nonprofit issues to promote a solution to a problem or a service (per Investopedia.com). The solution here was unpacking all the information in the Better Together/WEAVE NM survey from almost 300 Black community members in Albuquerque. Dr. Jordan describes the entire process as “strategic” work not “tactical,” meaning that this effort is meant to be long-term and transformative, not discrete and transactional.

NMBLC’s involvement was motivated by the long-standing exclusion of Blacks from the social, cultural, and political fabric of New Mexico. And according to NMBLC, the groundbreaking study exceeded participation goals from local Black folk, demonstrating that these studies, when approached respectfully and co-created with our community members, could produce meaningful data results about Black well-being and healthcare.

There are still major questions, like how do we better serve vulnerable BIPOC populations during the next, inevitable pandemic; and how do we achieve healthcare and vaccine equity for Black Americans before then?

NMBLC analysis revealed persistent patterns in socioeconomic and racial/ ethnic grouping which affect Black vaccine participation—including public institution confidence, social cohesion and solidarity, and civic engagement—all of which historically have been affected by disenfranchisement.

The survey also listed how Black vaccine inequity still manifests in different ways, including limited access to vaccination sites due to few pharmacies or public transportation; a lack of reliable internet access or digital literacy for appointments; and a lack of inclusion due to scarce healthcare provider outreach. Because Black folks have poorer healthcare access, there’s a lack of treatment; and because our communities weren’t prioritized in vaccine efforts, we had poorer vaccination numbers as a people.

These examples demonstrate the need for targeted strategies to address vaccine equity for Black Americans, including community engagement, distribution prioritization, and culturally-competent communication and education efforts.

In conclusion, Dr. Jordan noted we must keep asking the important questions. “These systems are supposed to help our community, so how do we really address these disparities? How do we make sure our community is actually, truly, and finally connected?”

Be sure to keep an eye out for the full white paper on the Better Together/ WEAVE NM survey responses in a future issue of the UpLift Chronicles and on the UpLift website.