COVID-19 Contact Tracing Conundrums: Insights from the Front Lines

COVID-19 contact tracing is an induction social network intervention in which the structure of the social network is leveraged to deploy proven COVID-19 interventions such as testing and social distancing. The Howard Brown Health organization has rapidly expanded to include COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and linkage to resources since the first cases were identified in…

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Community Network-Driven COVID-19 Testing in Vulnerable Populations (044)

The University of Chicago received a supplement from NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program to support the Community Network-Driven COVID-19 Testing of Vulnerable Populations in the Central US (C3) project to evaluate a COVID-19 testing approach that combines Social Network Testing Strategy (SNS) with community-developed public health messages. This study will focus on addressing misinformation, stigma, and distrust about COVID-19 testing and prevention among two populations that have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic: individuals involved in the criminal justice system that are not currently incarcerated and low-income Latinx individuals. The study will be conducted in rural and urban sites across Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana, and Illinois. The goal of this study is to address challenges of current COVID-19 testing strategies which are limited by misinformation, stigma, distrust, and limited affirmation of ability to prevent COVID-19.

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