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COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1420270
This article is part of the Research Topic Public Health Promotion and Medical Education Reform, Volume III View all 10 articles

The Puerto Rico Community Engagement Alliance (PR-CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities: Outreach and research engagement efforts in disproportionately affected communities

Provisionally accepted
Vivian Colón-López Vivian Colón-López 1*Adriana Pons-Calvo Adriana Pons-Calvo 1Cynthia M. Pérez Cynthia M. Pérez 2Karelys Canales-Birriel Karelys Canales-Birriel 1Zaydelis Tamarit-Quevedo Zaydelis Tamarit-Quevedo 1Norangelys Solís-Torres Norangelys Solís-Torres 1Fabiola A. Rivera-Gastón Fabiola A. Rivera-Gastón 1Ana P. Ortiz Ana P. Ortiz 1Andrea López-Cepero Andrea López-Cepero 3Enid García-Rivera Enid García-Rivera 4María Larriuz María Larriuz 4Edna Acosta Edna Acosta 5,6Marcilyn Colón Marcilyn Colón 7Zuleska Soto-Román Zuleska Soto-Román 1
  • 1 University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 2 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 3 Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
  • 4 University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 5 University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, Graduate School of Public Health, Center for Sociomedical Research and Evaluation, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 6 The Hispanic Alliance for Clinical & Translational Research in Puerto Rico (Alliance), San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • 7 University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, Graduate School of Public Health, Department of Social Sciences, San Juan, Puerto Rico

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In September 2020, the National Institutes of Health acted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing the critical need to combat misinformation, particularly in communities disproportionately affected by the crisis. The Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) emerged as an initiative dedicated to fostering reliable, science-based information, diversity, and inclusion; aiming to implement effective strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 nationwide. One of the teams participating in this initiative is Puerto Rico-CEAL (PR-CEAL). Our whose goal was to raise awareness about the coronavirus disease and advance research, mainly focusing on vulnerable and underserved populations. This concept paper seeks to outline PR-CEAL's infrastructure during its initial two cycles, providing insights into the research and community engagement activities designed to enhance prevention, counter misinformation, and foster awareness and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. Ultimately, our objective is to reflect on the strengths and challenges encountered thus far as we endeavor to sustain this robust infrastructure, addressing ongoing public health issues with a forward-looking approach.

    Keywords: COVID-19, Vaccine, disparities, outreach, Research, prevention, Puerto Rico

    Received: 19 Apr 2024; Accepted: 17 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Colón-López, Pons-Calvo, Pérez, Canales-Birriel, Tamarit-Quevedo, Solís-Torres, Rivera-Gastón, Ortiz, López-Cepero, García-Rivera, Larriuz, Acosta, Colón and Soto-Román. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Vivian Colón-López, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.