"They Don't Really Consider Us Essential, But We Are": a Qualitative Investigation of Vaccine Acceptance and Perceived Workplace Safety Among Black Transit Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Black Americans face a higher risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) morbidity and mortality due to adverse social determinants of health, including their overrepresentation in the frontline workforce. Despite these inequities, increasing vaccine acceptance among this subpopulation has been challenging. We conducted semi-structured qualitative focus groups with Black public transit workers living in the USA to explore behavioral intentions regarding COVID-19 vaccine uptake, occupational health challenges, and the perceived impact of racism on workplace health and safety during the pandemic. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the final transcripts. We completed three focus groups (n=10 participants) in October and November of 2021. Enabling factors for vaccination included opportunities for vaccination in the workplace, flexible hours of operation, and walk-in vaccine clinics. Disabling factors included excessive wait times. Some participants also cited lack of cleanliness, inconsistent enforcement of COVID-19 safety protocols, and unclear workplace policies regarding sick and hazard pay as major safety barriers. Perceptions regarding the role of racism in their experiences with COVID-19 as transit workers were mixed. Though occupational health and safety concerns were high, there are opportunities for transit agencies and government officials to improve both vaccine uptake and working conditions for Black transit workers.

COVID-19 & Sociocultural Determinants of Global Sanitation: An Aide-Mémoire and Call to Decolonize Global Sanitation Research & Practice.

COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated many global health inequities. Emerging evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 can spread through fecal aerosols, making sanitation a critical part of the COVID-19 mitigation strategy and providing an opportunity to reflect on current challenges and opportunities related to global sanitation at large. Global sanitation interventions continue to fall short of their target expectations, leading to millions of deaths and illnesses worldwide. Eurocentric approaches to sanitation fail to account for sociocultural determinants of sanitation behaviors and health, leading to low sanitation intervention uptake. Global public health needs to take a decolonial approach to our research and practice, and meaningfully involve local communities to progress towards global health equity.