NIH to invest $29 million to address COVID-19 disparities

To bolster research to help communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health is funding $29 million in additional grants for the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. This funding was supported by the American Rescue Plan. The awards will provide $15 million to 11 teams already conducting research and outreach to help strengthen COVID-19 vaccine confidence and access, as well as testing and treatment, in communities of color. An additional $14 million will fund 10 new research teams to extend the reach of COVID-19 community-engaged research and outreach.

“The goal of this effort is to foster community-engagement research in communities which have been hit hardest by the pandemic,” said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). “The alliance is designed to meet people where they are with the help of trusted messengers, including family doctors, pastors, and community health workers, and to forge lasting partnerships to address health disparities.”

It's been just over a year since Michigan's restaurants were forced to close indoor dining for the first time.

In that time many chefs pivoted from their restaurants to working with nonprofit groups on a new task: feeding their increasingly hungry communities.

The pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity across the country. In Detroit, it was already 39% before the pandemic.

"Once the pandemic hit, of course, that number heightened dramatically," chef Ederique Goudia tells All Things Considered. "Now we have our next door neighbors, our parents, our sisters, our friends who are now food insecure as well."