Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Announces continuation of Cooperative Agreement with National Medical Association (NMA) and W. Montague Cobb Institute to Increase Vaccination Coverage Across Racial and Ethnic Adult Populations Experiencing Disparities.  

The continuation of the cooperative agreement perpetuates working partnerships established in 2021. 

Adult vaccination coverage remains low nationally for all populations, but there are significant racial and ethnic disparities related explicitly to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and influenza (flu) immunizations. The low uptake of COVID-19 and flu vaccines places African American (Black) and other resource-limited populations at higher risk for COVID-19 infections and the probability of the serious illnesses associated with COVID-19, and the severe medical complications linked to COVID-19/flu "twindemic" infections. 

The primary goal of the National Medical Association (NMA) and W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association (NMA) Health Institute (The Cobb Institute), (NMA/Cobb Institute) cooperative agreement (NMA-CA) is to support efforts to increase adult COVID-19/flu immunization coverage for adults in Black and other racial and ethnic disparate populations.

The NMA/Cobb cooperative agreement also develops methods to address avoidable COVID-19/flu inequities and confront appropriate historical and contemporary health and healthcare disparities and biases. 

The NMA-CA comprises four major components to facilitate physician, nursing, faith-based education, and community-driven COVID-19/flu immunization interventions.

The four fundamental NMA-CA strategies are:
  • Develop customized national, sectional, and state COVID-19/flu data to support the physician CME meetings, nursing CE meetings, and other events associated with public information and messaging campaigns.
  • Provide administrative, clinical, and financial support for NMA internal groups (i.e., sections and regions) and external sub-recipients to host physician and nursing education activities and community outreach events. Also, host informational meetings to identify education and service gaps that hamper COVID-19/flu immunization uptake.
  • Facilitate the production of provider-enduring materials and other community-level information for patient/community campaigns to promote the uptake of flu and COVID-19 immunizations while minimizing vaccination hesitancy.
  • Assist in delineating the evaluation and assessment activities to measure the effectiveness of the programs, events, and/or activities.

 

The National Medical Association and the W. Montague Cobb Institute have been collaborating with CDC to increase vaccination uptake since 2021, following Operation Warp Speed (Accelerated COVID-19 Vaccine Development Status and Efforts to Address Manufacturing Challenges), The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (2020) and the Coronavirus Response and Consolidated Appropriations Act (2021).  Together these measures provided stimulus for rapid research and manufacturing of vaccines, support for healthcare organizations, and fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, small businesses, and industries.

Funding for the NMA-CA were part of the initial federal “Warp Speed” legislation when there was little known about the COVID-19/flu pandemic other than increasing the use of public health preventive measures and increasing “shots in arms” in Black patients and underserved communities. For this reason, physician education is the cornerstone of the NMA-CA.

Cobb Institute Vaccination Clinic

Further information 

The population health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed many longstanding healthcare inequities that systematically undermine the clinical, environmental, social, economic, and mental health of Black and other racial and ethnic minority populations that bear the disproportionate burden of poor COVID-19 health status and clinical outcomes.

As a result, community engagement is a critical first step for addressing the slow uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among Blacks. The COVID-19 pandemic in Black and underserved communities must be viewed through other health disparities lenses such as sociocultural, environmental vulnerabilities, and compounded preexisting health conditions. Creating comprehensive and synergic educational underpinning between “trusted medical, nursing, faith-based and community stakeholders is crucial for rapid uptake of COVID-19/flu vaccines and reduction of vaccine hesitancy in Blacks and underserved communities.

The NMA-CA forms relationships with the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) and the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Action Plan (CHL). The NMA-CA established NBNA, and CHL affiliation facilitates physician education and nursing information and assembles resources of diverse Black faith-based organizations to positively leverage comprehensive approaches to COVID-19/flu immunization. The NMA national bandwidth, with its therapeutic sections ‘information and the geographic capacity of the region, state/local affiliates promote prompt dissemination of customized vaccination use materials to help increase immunization rates and reduce vaccine hesitancy in Black and other underserved patients. Many NMA and Cobb members are nationally recognized academic physicians and pioneers in community-based private practice expertise.

The collective clinical expertise related to Black at-risk patients is essential to effectively analyze, summarize, and synthesize CDC and ACIP immunization recommendations into actionable uptake strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NMA-CA provides functionality for reciprocal strategies between the clinical proficiencies, operational framework, and cost-effective structures to improve the COVID-19/flu landscape within the context of broader adult immunization issues. The NMA-CA relationships fashion multilevel clinical, management, and outreach activities to rapidly identify barriers to COVID-19/flu vaccines and design medical education and community campaigns on direct and consequential slow vaccine uptake. Ensuring that Black and other underserved populations have evidence-based, unfettered, patient-centric, and culturally appropriate COVID-19/flu efforts should save lives and improve the quality of life of Blacks by preventing severe infectious diseases.

Links to previous years activities 

    
NMA/CDC Vaccine Initiative Activities 2023
 
NMA/CDC Vaccine Initiative Activities 2024
 
NMA/CDC Vaccine Initiative Performance 2023
 
NMA/CDC Vaccine Initiative Performance 2024

 

IMMUNIZATION GUIDE PROGRAM

VACCINE RESOURCE MATERIALS