LCH participates in Latino Legislative Day: Dr.Morales presents on Long COVID

The Latino Civic Alliance hosted its Latino Legislative Day in Olympia, Washington on January 22, 2024. Hundreds of participants attended the advocacy event, which featured speakers including, Representative Julio Cortes and Governor Jay Inslee, Chief Justice Steve Gonzalez, Representative Lillian Ortiz- Self, Representative Bill Ramos, Representative Alex Ybarra, Representative Emily Alvarado, Representative Sharlett Mena, and Senator Rebecca Saldana.

Dr. Leo Morales, co-director of the Latino Center for Health (LCH), presented at the event and shared the findings of the LCH’s Long COVID Study. The study produced substantial data on the prevalence of long COVID in Washington state’s Latinx communities, including that 41% of survey respondents reported symptom duration consistent with long COVID.

On behalf of the LCH, Dr. Morales advocated for several legislative recommendations, including:

Expanding no-cost community vaccine efforts by increasing funding for the Care-a-Van mobile health program, to help prevent COVID, RSV, and influenza infections.
Broadening provider and community education on Long COVID, in addition to greater investment in clinical care for long COVID, to help measure and understand the impact of Long COVID.
Expanding community-based screening for obesity, pre-diabetes, diabetes, and hypertension with navigation assistance to receipt of medical care (telehealth), to reduce cardiometabolic disease and diabetes.
Full funding of state Medicaid-like and health insurance exchange programs for undocumented immigrants, to expand insurance coverage to vulnerable populations.

These efforts are part of the LCH’s continued commitment to bridge evidence with policymaking in Washington state to positively impact Latino health and well-being.

You can download the slides presented by Dr.Morales below.

LCH Latino Legislative Day Slides Download

LCH Long COVID Study- What You Need to Know

Event Recap

On November 3rd, the Latino Center for Health (LCH) hosted the Latinx Long COVID Symposium—Study Findings & Pathways to Health. The interactive event featured in-person attendance at Heritage University, and remote attendance via Zoom, and convened 50 local community leaders, elected officials, health officials, and key stakeholders from across the state.

The symposium presented the findings from the long COVID study conducted by the LCH, which surveyed Latino patients from across Washington state to determine the prevalence of long COVID and its impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of those affected. The study was conducted in partnership with SeaMar Community Health Centers, Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic, the Allen Institute for Immunology, DataStat, and the UW Medicine Long COVID Clinic.

Key Takeaways

Some key takeaways from the long COVID study are:

41% of survey respondents reported symptom duration consistent with long COVID.
Fatigue, muscle pain, anxiety, and sleep difficulty were the four most commonly reported long COVID symptoms. See figure below.

29% of respondents with long COVID symptoms reported having a change in their health of ‘‘worse’ or ‘much worse’ after their first COVID infection, compared to 7% of those without long COVID symptoms.
Respondents with long COVID symptoms were more likely to report changes across quality of life measures including pain, mental health, sleep, social function, cognitive function, physical function, and fatigue. See figure below.

39% of respondents with long COVID symptoms reported being very worried about losing their job if they were to miss two days of work due to illness.

Symposium Discussions

Towards the end of the symposium, participants moved into breakout rooms and discussed strategic next steps. LCH notetakers transcribed these conversations and plan to take the insights and input from the wide range of voices that participated to highlight areas of need and inform policy recommendations.

What’s Next?

The LCH will disseminate several materials related to the long COVID study and symposium in the coming weeks, including:

A policy brief, accessible via the LCH website
An infographic, highlighting key insights from the study
A full recording of the Symposium

If you have questions regarding the study, symposium, or future collaboration with the Latino Center for Health, please email latcntr@uw.edu.

Materials

Slides presented at the long COVID Symposium by Dr. Leo Morales of the Latino Center for Health, and Jazmine Castillo and Samir Racid Zaim of the Allen Institute for Immunology:

LCH-Long-COVID-Symposium-Slides Download

Slides presented at the long COVID Symposium by Dr. Janna Friedly of UW Medicine:

Janna-Friedly-Slides Download

Long COVID in the Latinx Community: Summit in Review

Long COVID in the Latinx Community: An Unaddressed Consequence of COVID was a virtual summit hosted on May 5th by the Latino Center for Health to discuss the impacts of long COVID in the Latinx community in Washington state.

The summit brought together a diverse group of attendees from various fields and backgrounds, all sharing a common goal of better understanding and addressing the challenges faced by individuals affected by long COVID. The summit provided an enriching platform for open discussions, exchange of knowledge, and future collaborations between health officials, medical professionals, community leaders, elected officials, and key community stakeholders.

Event Overview

The summit included remarks and presentations from several honored guests:

Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, Chief of Health Science at the Executive Office of Health and Science at the Washington State DOH
Janna L. Friedly, Physiatrist at UW Medicine’s Rehabilitation Medicine clinics at Harborview Medical Center and a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine
Aarthi Talla, Principal Bioinformatician at The Allen Institute for Immunology
Lisa McCorkell, Co-Founder and Long COVID Patient-Researcher at Patient-Led Research Collaborative
And a presentation by students of Frank Martinez, CTO at Carina and Guest Faculty Member at the UW iSchool

In addition to presentations, small group breakout room sessions were held throughout the day. These allowed attendees from different professional backgrounds to share expertise and perspectives and serve as a springboard for collaboration.

Attendees hailed from a wide variety of organizations, including The Allen Institute for Immunology, Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic, Centro Cultural Mexicano, the Washington State Department of Health, and more.

Thematic Analysis

LCH-Long-COVID-Summit-Overview Download

Long COVID Resources

The Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Declaration Ends May 11, 2023. What Does This Mean For You?

End of the Public Health
Emergency- Key Messages for the Public Download

Vacuna Contra El COVID-19 – Datos Clave Download

End of Public Health Emergency Flyer Download

Fin De La Emergencia De Salud Pública Por El COVID-19 Download

Latino Center for Health Studying Long COVID in Latinx Communities

The LCH is conducting a study that seeks to determine how many members of the Latino community are currently affected by long COVID, and how it is impacting their health and well-being.

February 27, 2023

The Latino Center for Health (LCH) is conducting a study to better understand the extent and impact of long COVID on the state’s Latino communities.

Partners in the study are SeaMar Community Health Centers, the Allen Institute for Immunology, and the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic.

Study leader Dr. Leo Morales, a professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and co-director of the Latino Center for Health, will direct the survey which focuses on Latinos age 18 years and older who have had a positive COVID-19 test result. The questionnaire will include questions about symptoms, the respondents’ medical history, whether they received the COVID vaccine, their physical and mental health, and their social and economic situations.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos have the highest rates of long COVID. About 9% of Hispanic adults report symptoms, compared with 7.5% of U.S. adults overall.

“With this survey we hope to determine how many members of the Latino community are currently affected by long COVID, and how it is impacting their health and well-being,” said Morales.

Photo of Dr. Leo Morales — Dr. Leo Morales, co-director of the Latino Center for Health, is leading the LCH’s study on long COVID.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, Latino communities in Washington state have had higher rates of COVID-19 infection than the general population, higher rates of hospitalization, and higher rates of mortality on an age-adjusted basis,” Morales noted. “Yet we are not seeing many people from Latino communities showing up in our long-COVID clinics.”

The study will use the World Health Organization’s definition of long COVID: symptoms that began within three months of a probable or confirmed case of infection, which have persisted at least two months and cannot be explained by another diagnosis. Common long-COVID symptoms include fatigue, fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and problems with memory and thinking, often called “brain fog.”

“Many Latinos may not be aware of the symptoms of long COVID,” Morales said. “I suspect that a lot of people in Latino communities don’t know they have long COVID. They’re feeling badly, they’re having problems with fatigue or brain fog; they’re just not doing well, but they don’t exactly know why. Helping people understand what is going on and guiding them to evaluation and treatment is important.”

Morales said he hopes the project’s findings will not only help improve care of Latino individuals affected by long COVID, but also help guide policymakers to develop appropriate long-COVID services for Latino communities.

Project BRIDGE

New Latine Storytelling Group Launches COVID-19 Interview Series

Learn More About Project BRIDGE

Project BRIDGE is a new Seattle-based digital storytelling group formed by a team of Latine professionals dedicated to sharing under-told stories to advocate for our community’s health and research needs. This study was supported in part by funding from the Latino Center for Health.

Over the past year, Project BRIDGE interviewed six Latinas from around Washington state on their experiences as advocates, artists, researchers, mothers, and women dedicated to fighting for their communities on topics related to collaboration, decolonization, health care, migration, and navigating the pandemic.

Part I of BRIDGE’s three-part COVID-19 Interview Series highlights two advocates for undocumented detainees: Maru Mora Villalpando, Immigrant Community Organizer with La Resistencia, and Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, researcher, professor, and Director at the UW Center for Human Rights. In Part I: Advocating for Undocumented Detainees, they discuss the relationship between community and academia and the barriers and facilitators of their work.

Watch the video below to hear Maru’s experiences advocating for her community of undocumented detainees and navigating barriers amplified by COVID-19: “The conditions in prisons don’t make you healthy; actually, they do the opposite.” — Maru Mora Villalpando

Part I – Episode I: Maru Mora Villalpando, La Resistencia Advocate + Immigrant Community Organizer

Click here to watch Episodes II + III where you’ll hear more from Maru and meet Angelina Snodgrass Godoy’s experiences as a human rights researcher.

The pandemic brought to light deep inequities in our systems. As we respond to the health needs in the Latine community, we hope our partners’ stories inform, expand, and inspire growth for advocates, researchers, and allies.

Visit the website by clicking here to learn more about our work and watch the rest of the COVID-19 Interview Series Project BRIDGE.

Project BRIDGE is a collaboration between the University of Washington, the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle, and community partners dedicated to advancing Latines in WA and beyond. BRIDGE is funded by the Population Health Initiative, Department of Communications, and Latino Center for Health at the University of Washington.

Please contact Nathalia Jimenez for all queries at njimen@uw.edu

LCH Economic Impact Policy Brief featured in KUOW Covid Blog

Dr. Miriana Duran, Data Analyst at the Latino Center for Health and Aida Hidalgo, capstone student at LCH, are both quoted in this blog: https://www.kuow.org/stories/pandemic-blog-updates-for-seattle-and-the-nw-47cd

Latinx Leaders Across WA Call for Culturally Responsive Policies for COVID-19 Recovery

Latinx leaders from across the state share stories of loss and resilience while identifying new paths to recovery for their local communities.

University of Washington, Seattle: As the Latinx community continues to face disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders from across Washington state are calling for culturally responsive policies and resources to promote health equity for urban and rural Latinx communities statewide.

As of December 14, 2021, Latinos in Washington state account for 22% of COVID-19 cases while only 13% of the state’s population, and more than three times the mortality rate compared with non-Hispanic whites on an age-adjusted basis.

As part of a virtual symposium hosted by the Latino Center for Health in October, community leaders gained a collective understanding of the ongoing needs and shared stories of resilience in our community. Discussions centered around four topics significant to our Latinx communities in pandemic times:

COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Return-to-School
Mutual Aid

LCH published four policy briefs highlighting the symposium’s main takeaways—along with key policy recommendations that aim to inform COVID recovery resource allocation and policymaking necessary to promote health equity for Latinx communities in Washington. Key policy recommendations include:

Increase multicultural and multilingual state programming and proactive information distribution (including emergency preparedness and response programming).
Increase the number of multicultural, multilingual WA therapists, psychologists, and other mental health practitioners and support the provision of telemental health services.
Mandate paid sick days for all employees (regardless of documentation status) needing time off for vaccinations and post-vaccination side-effects for themselves and their dependents.
Develop and implement culturally responsive, trauma-informed training for all educators and school staff at publicly funded schools.
Increase funding for community health worker initiatives in Latinx communities. Funding should go directly to community-based organizations that currently train and coordinate community health workers

“It’s important to invest in the people and grassroots organizations that have been on the ground for years,” said Marisol Lister, symposium panelist and Development and Communications Coordinator at Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN). “We know this is not going to be the last crisis that our communities will face.”

To learn more about Latinos’ experiences surrounding COVID-19 in WA state and additional recommendations for promoting health equity, visit our COVID-19 policy brief series page.

COVID-19 Pandemic Intensifies Economic Disparities Among Latinos, Latinas in WA State

The new brief from LCH shows that Latino men and women are experiencing disproportionate economic hardships, with Latina women facing higher unemployment rates and caretaking responsibilities.

University of Washington, Seattle: As part of a COVID-19 policy brief, the Latino Center for Health reports that many Washington state Latinos are not able to meet their basic needs, including healthcare, food and housing security.

For Latinas (Hispanic women), the unemployment rate has risen more quickly than that of Latinos (Hispanic men) throughout the pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, Latinas left the workforce at twice the rate of Latinos. Eight months later, this disparity doubled. In addition, compared to other women in the workforce, Latinas left jobs at a rate three times higher than white women and four times higher than Black women.

“Latinas are facing a disproportionate economic impact from the pandemic,” said Research Coordinator Miriana C Duran, MD, MPH. “In addition to experiencing high unemployment rates, having new childcare responsibilities at home due to school closures has forced them to leave the workforce at an alarming rate. Latinas need policies that support an equitable and inclusive post-pandemic recovery.”

As essential workers, many Latinos and Latinas have experienced significantly higher job loss, decreased work hours, and work-related income as compared with whites. According to the LCH survey study, 60 percent of all participants reported their household income was reduced due to the pandemic and 44 percent of the participants reported not being able to meet their basic needs.

“Latinos have suffered from losses and poor health due to COVID-19,” said Co-Author Aida Hidalgo-Arroyo, PhD. “They have faced dire personal and financial struggles despite their essential role in keeping the country and the economy moving…it is about time we support them back.”

LCH policy recommendations include:

Expanding the federal unemployment benefits through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Emergency Paid Leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave.
Increasing the minimum wage and eliminating tipped minimum wage.
Increasing relief funding for childcare.
Enhancing worker rights and protections such as safety protocols for essential workers.
Providing support to undocumented Latino and Latina immigrants.

This policy brief is part of LCH’s COVID-19 policy brief series. LCH researchers used data from the 2019 Census QuickFacts website and the WA State Department of Health COVID-19 Dashboard.

Other recommendations for increasing vaccine uptake among Latinos can be found in our recent policy briefs on vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 information sources.

Tri-City Herald cites LCH policy brief, calls for increasing vaccinations

Read the article here: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/coronavirus/article255479791.html

2021 Symposium: COVID-19 and Latino Experiences in WA State

Nuestra Salud, Nuestro Futuro

On October 13, 2021, representatives from across urban and rural regions of WA state shared data and stories about the pandemic’s impact on their respective Latinx/e communities, with a focus on what’s worked well and what challenges lie ahead. COVID-19 is still disproportionately affecting Latinx/e communities, and it is clear that we need grassroots, community-based efforts combined with top-down efforts to find solutions and continue strengthening Latinos’ health and well-being. Take a look at the symposium program and videos below to learn more.

Representatives participated in discussions that focused on issues impacting the Latinx/e communities and produced key policy recommendations that aim to inform COVID recovery resource allocation and policymaking necessary to promote health equity for Latino communities in Washington. We identified four areas of significance to our Latino communities in pandemic times:

COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Return-to-School
Mutual Aid

Read our policy briefs to learn how we can support COVID recovery and health equity for Latinx communities.

Watch the Symposium

Symposium Planning Committee

Nora Araujo
Community Outreach Specialist
Community Outreach Department
Consulate of Mexico in Seattle

Aida Hidalgo, PhD, MSc
Promotora de Salud
Ventanilla de Salud Program
Consulate of Mexico in Seattle

Carolina Lucero, MSW
Latino Center for Health Advisory Board member

Tomas Madrigal, PhD
Equity Coordinator
COVID-19 Response Community Engagement Taskforce
Washington State Department of Health

Nina Martinez
Board Chair
Latino Civic Alliance (LCA)

Milvia Berenice Pacheco Salvatierra
Artist and President
Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MÁS)

Maria Cristina Rojas, MD
Nephrology Specialist
Confluence Health–Wenatchee

Maria Sigüenza
Executive Director
WA State Commission on Hispanic Affairs (CHA)

Martin Valadez, MA
Regional Director, Heritage University Tri-Cities Campus & Interim Executive Director, Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Tag: covid-19