ABSTRACT
The tremendous global toll of the COVID-19 pandemic does not fall equally on all populations. Indeed, this crisis has exerted more severe impacts on the most vulnerable communities, spotlighting the continued consequences of longstanding structural, social, and healthcare inequities. This disparity in COVID-19 parallels the unequal health consequences of climate change, whereby underlying inequities perpetuate adverse health outcomes disproportionately among vulnerable populations. As these two crises continue to unfold, there is an urgent need for healthcare practitioners to identify and implement solutions to mitigate adverse health outcomes, especially in the face of global crises. To support this need, the 2021 Clinical Climate Change Conference held a virtual meeting to discuss the implications of the convergence of the climate crisis and COVID-19, particularly for vulnerable patient populations and the clinicians who care for them. Presenters and panelists provided evidence-based solutions to help health professionals improve and adapt their practice to these evolving scenarios. Together, participants explored the community health system and national solutions to reduce the impacts of COVID-19 and the climate crisis, to promote community advocacy, and foster new partnerships between community and healthcare leaders to combat systemic racism and achieve a more just and equitable society.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Racism , Climate Change , Humans , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is introduced, it is critical to recognize that public opinion on vaccines is largely influenced by health communications, with YouTube being a major source of information and misinformation. This analysis graded the accuracy, quality, and reliability of the most viewed YouTube videos depicting COVID-19 and vaccinations over a 6-mo period. METHODS: We collected hyperlinks for the 150 most viewed YouTube videos discussing COVID-19 from January through June 2020. Closed captioning data were searched for the term "vaccine," yielding 32 videos. This sample was evaluated for quality, accuracy, and reliability using a rubric that incorporated existing instruments: Global Quality Scale (GQS), JAMA Benchmark Criteria, and DISCERN. RESULTS: These 32 videos had 139,764,188 views at the time of data collection. The majority of videos received low scores, with network news sources receiving the lowest scores overall. CONCLUSIONS: The overall quality of COVID-19 YouTube videos related to vaccines may be low and raises a precautionary alert for the public consuming these videos and for health-care providers working to provide the best information to their patients. Existing scoring tools may not capture the complexities of social media. New tools could allow for a better understanding of the modern landscape of health communications.
ABSTRACT
As the United States wrestles with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and concurrently confronts long-standing issues of racial injustice, it is more important than ever that criminal justice health becomes an integrated component of medical school curricula. Nearly all future physicians will someday be caring for justice-involved patients or their family members. A foundational medical school education that includes criminal justice health will better equip these physicians to not only care for their patients, but also help address health care disparities and the public health concerns that affect our communities. These recommended changes to U.S. medical school curricula will occur only with the commitment of academic leaders and their inclusion of medical school faculty with criminal justice health expertise to help guide these efforts. Now is the time for U.S. medical schools to embrace criminal justice health as essential learning.