Covid 19: PANDEMIC: Program to Address National Disparities in Ethnic and Minority Impact from COVID-19

STATEMENT OF WORK: PANDEMIC Kentucky suffers from persistent health inequities, exacerbated by poverty, high unemployment, and low education levels among many residents, placing our population at significant risk of complications and death due to COVID-19 infection. The purpose of this community-engaged project is to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates throughout targeted counties with below average vaccination rates and to better understand barriers and methods to improve knowledge and develop implementation strategies. This project builds on more than a decade of community-engaged research and dissemination and implementation research throughout the region by investigators, which will be critical to support implementation of large-scale vaccination strategies. Leveraging our longstanding infrastructure in the region, we will collaborate with local and state health departments, community-based organizations, local cooperative extension offices and local health care providers to understand testing patterns and implement interventions to rapidly increase reach, access and acceptance and vaccinations uptake.