As of January 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 90 million cases of COVID-19 (SARS‐CoV‐2) have been confirmed and have resulted in more than 1.9 million deaths globally. Currently, the United States (U.S.) is the country with the largest number of infections and deaths due to COVID-19, with a total of 26 million infections and 454,596 deaths. Furthermore, early findings that have examined COVID‐19 demographics show that racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are bearing a disproportionate number of COVID‐19 cases and deaths. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that COVID-19 hospitalization rates among African American (AA) and Latinx people were both 4.7 times the rate of non-Hispanic white people. While there’s no evidence that people of color (POC) have genetic or biological factors that make them more likely to be affected by COVID-19, they are more likely to have underlying health conditions, live in multi-generational homes and densely populated areas, limited access to healthcare, and be essential workers, All of these factors contribute to higher rates of infection and adverse COVID-19 outcomes.

Although COVID-19 preventive behaviors such as mask wearing, and social distancing have been shown to be effective in curbing the spread of the virus, acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines will be instrumental to ending the pandemic. However, public confidence in vaccination is fragile, especially among racial and ethnic minorities, likely due to historical racism in health care and human rights violations in research. COVID-19 vaccination programs will only succeed if there is widespread belief that available vaccines are safe and effective and that policies for prioritizing their distribution are equitable and evidence-based. To this end, we propose an intervention working group comprised of representatives from community and academic organizations to address challenges in COVID-19 vaccination uptake among Latinx and AA communities in Southern California by using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Through this proposal, we seek to address individual, social, and contextual factors related to access, acceptance, and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among Latinx and AA adults in San Diego. 2VIDA! will center on conducting COVID-19 Individual awareness and education, linkages to medical and supportive services, and Community Outreach and Health Promotion in the intervention sites (Phase 1); and offering the COVID-19 vaccine to Latinx and AA adults (>18 years old) in community health centers (CHC) and mini-vaccination stations in communities highly impacted by the pandemic (i.e., National City, Logan Heights, Lincoln Park, Valencia Park, San Ysidro) and identifying individual and structural barriers to COVID-19 immunization (Phase 2).