Moving the Needle: Association Between a Vaccination Reward Lottery and COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake in Louisiana.

OBJECTIVE: On June 17, 2021, Louisiana launched a lottery campaign to reward residents who received a COVID-19 vaccination. We investigated the association between the lottery and vaccination uptake by characteristics of parishes. METHODS: We constructed an interrupted time series based on daily parish-level data on COVID-19 vaccinations to analyze the association with the lottery. We used recursive partitioning to separate vaccination uptake due to the Delta variant from vaccination uptake due to the lottery and limited our study period to May 25 through July 20, 2021. We performed subanalyses that grouped parishes by political affiliation, hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to detect heterogeneous responses to the lottery by these characteristics. We ran models separately for parishes in the top and bottom tertiles of each sociodemographic indicator and used a z test to check for differences. RESULTS: The lottery was associated with an additional 1.03 (95% CI, 0.61-1.45; P < .001) first doses per parish per day. Comparing lottery impacts between top and bottom tertiles, we found significantly larger associations in parishes with lower vaccine hesitancy rates, higher percentage of Hispanic population, higher median annual household income, and more people with a college degree. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that the lottery was associated with increased COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Louisiana. However, larger associations were observed in parishes with an already higher likelihood of accepting vaccines, which raises equity issues about the opportunity created by the lottery and its effectiveness as a long-term behavioral incentive.

Post-COVID lesson learned: The new look of DEI

Reimagining diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) became a high priority and central in WGU's strategic plan including successes, lessons learned, and opportunities to make an even greater impact for faculty, staff, students, and communities. In this chapter, per the authors, WGU's wins, lessons learned, and opportunities to make an even greater impact for faculty, staff, students, and stakeholders are explored. Higher education institutions and businesses alike realized an inclusive workplace where employees feel they can be their authentic selves was necessary to attract the best talent and foster greater innovation. Although WGU was more uniquely positioned to host DEI initiatives, strategies, and trainings virtually, there were still many lessons to be learned. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Is Covid-19 community level testing effective in reaching at-risk populations? Evidence from spatial analysis of New Orleans patient data at walk-up sites.

BACKGROUND: This paper evaluates the increase in coverage and use of Covid-19 testing services for vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations through the introduction of community-based walk-up sites in New Orleans, LA. While most GIS work on Covid-19 testing coverage and access has used census tract or ZIP code aggregated data, this manuscript is unique in that it uses individual level demographics and exact addresses to calculate distances actually traveled by patients. METHODS: We used testing data recorded for 9721 patients at 20 sites operating in May-June 2020. The dataset includes detailed age, race and ethnicity, and testing results as well as the exact address of each individual. Using GIS, we estimated changes in testing coverage for minority neighborhoods and calculated the actual distance covered by individuals. Logistic regression and multivariate linear regression were used to identify socio-demographic variables associated with distance travelled to and used of nearest testing site. We used a secondary dataset from drive-through sites to evaluate change in coverage at the census tract level for the metropolitan area. RESULTS: Walk-up sites significantly increased testing availability in New Orleans, and specifically in minority neighborhoods. Both African Americans and Asians were more likely (14.7 and 53.0%) to be tested at the nearest walk-up site. They also covered shorter distances to get tested. Being elderly was also significantly and positively associated with testing at the nearest site. Hispanics, however, were not associated with increased proximity to and use of nearest sites, and they traveled an additional 0.745 km to get tested. Individuals who tested positive also travelled significantly longer distances to obtain a test. CONCLUSIONS: Walk-up sites increased testing availability for some vulnerable populations who took advantage of the sites' proximity, although inequalities appear at the metropolitan scale. As cities are planning community vaccination campaigns, mobile, walk-up sites appear to improve both coverage and accessibility for hard-to-reach populations. With adequate technical (vaccine dose refrigeration) and messaging (addressing reticence to immunization) adaptations, they could constitute a key complementary approach to health facility points of delivery.