Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the LatinX community and LATIN-19’s organized efforts to advocate for the LatinX community

Dr. Vivianna Martinez-Bianchi from Duke Family Medicine and Community Health joins the DHVI's Taking Science To The Streets series to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the LatinX community and the Latinx Advocacy Team and Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19).

Dr. Martinez-Bianchi has collaborated on various initiatives to improve health equity in Durham and across the state of North Carolina, most recently in response to COVID-19. Martinez-Bianchi is a founding member and co-director of LATIN-19, which was created in March 2020 to advocate and bring awareness of the needs of the LatinX community in North Carolina during the COVID-19 crisis, and has led to multiple media segments in Spanish, PSAs and improved Spanish messaging from local public health departments and government, and most importantly, the creation of a broad coalition to improve health.

Taking Science to the Streets is a DHVI initiative aimed at connecting DHVI employees and trainees to have open discussion about science behind the policies for managing infectious diseases in general and debunking science from myths. Better understanding of science and policies will ultimately help the trainees, and faculty as well, to effectively communicate science to the public.