In a critical move to reach Black, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native Americans citizens, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) collaborated with the Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA) on Thursday, October 27 to host its first-ever metaverse press briefing on the newly established BIPOCXChange.
The BIPOCXChange, a single solution metaverse service for BIPOC Media engagement, offered HHS a one-stop solution to reach often neglected, trusted multicultural media, essential in achieving the administration’s health equity goals.
Led by Hannah Kim, Deputy Assistant Secretary for health care in the Office of Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (HHS), as part of the
We Can Do This – COVID-19 Public Education Campaign, the briefing focused on how far the U.S. has come in the fight against COVID-19 and the importance of sustaining that progress by getting the updated vaccines. Locations to schedule vaccines, tool kits, and other resources are available at www.vaccines.gov.
Updated vaccines are now available for people ages 5 and up.
Another discussion during the briefing was health equity. A fundamental focus of the HSS COVID-19 Public Education Campaign has been health equity. Here are a few key points discussed:
- Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, the campaign has partnered with over 1,000 organizations, the majority of which work with minority or rural communities.
- These partnerships alone have reached over 26 million people and resulted in hundreds of events, and tens of thousands of vaccinations.
- These actions helped close a 10-point disparity gap in our nation’s vaccination rate last year — between White and Black/Latino communities.
- Materials have been translated in over 17 languages including: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
- And just this week, the COVID-19 Public Education Campaign launched new national and local TV, radio and print ads geared at reaching Black and Latino audiences in more than 30 markets in English and Spanish.
Speakers for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 briefing included Dr. Cameron Webb, Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team; Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General; Dr. José R. Romero, Director of National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as representatives from the HHS COVID-19 Public Education Campaign.
BIPOC organizations participating in the briefing included NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association), NAHP (National Association of Hispanic Publications), AAJA (Asian American Journalist Association),NAJA (Native American Journalist Association), NAHJ (National Association of Hispanic Journalists), NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists), MMCA (Multicultural Media Correspondents Association), MIJE (Maynard Institute for Journalism Education), NPC (National Press Club), and AMEJA (Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association).
Dr. Cameron Webb, Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team said, “We know there is a path to making sure equity is centered in the vaccination effort. And it starts with respecting and acknowledging the people from the community are going to be the key to our success.” He continued, “It’s recognizing that there are resources that are necessary to help support community organizations in their outreach and their work. It’s making sure that there are vaccines in every community and people can access these vaccines.”
David Morgan, MMCA President and CEO of the BIPOCXChange commented, “We are pleased that HHS hosted this timely and vitally important COV-19 briefing on the BIPOCXChange and that over 100 BIPOC publishers were able to join. We look forward to continuing our collaboration and our efforts to leverage trusted BIPOC voices to increase community engagement and provide consistent and accurate public health information to the communities we serve.”
Visit www.bipocxchange.com for more information.
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