Covid-19: TransFoward Building a Statewide Transgender Collaborative for Long-Term Effects of Post- Acute COVID-19 Research in Texas

Background: The 2019 novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, has impacted the health, livelihoods, and social lives of people around the world. Current public health initiatives that address COVID-19 operate without knowledge of how COVID-19 impacts transgender and gender-expansive people. Making visible the inequalities of health outcomes and the social, economic, and historial inequalities that drive these health disparities is the crucial first step toward an effective COVID-19 response. Texas is home to the second largest transgender adult population in the cournty, behind California. This inclues 46,500 White, non-Hispanics; 16,800 African American or Black; 54,650 Hispanic or Latino; and 6,550 other races or ethnicities. Overall, 23 percent of transgender or gender-diverse respondents believed they were exposed to COVID-19 and 11 percent believe they'd already had COVID-19 prior to July 30, 2020. Proposed Solution to the Problem: The purpose of this project is to address the urgent need for COVID-19-related transgender and gender-diverse (referred to in this application as TGD, transgender, or trans) research. The project team proposes taking advantage of an existing statewide network to engage transgender stakeholders, clinicians, researchers, payers, policy makers, and other stakeholders to rapidly illuminate the inequalities of health outcomes and social, ecoomic, and historial inequalities that drive the health disparities described above. This project will address the unique needs of the trans population and build capacity for patient-centered outcomes research and comparative clinical effectiveness research (PCOR/CER) stakeholer engagement specifically related to the long-term effects of post-acute COVID-19; the impact of COVID-19 on this disproportionately affected and vulnerable population; and the impact COVID-19 on social isolation and loneliess (mental health and well-being). Objectives This project will help achieve future long-term goals including: (a) conduct PCOR/CER addressing post-acute COVID-19 health issues in Texas; (b) measurably improve transgender quality of life emphasizing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and social determinants of health.