The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the ongoing health disparities many African
Americans face in the U.S. On November 16, 33 organizations and community leaders
traveled to D.C. and participated virtually to join the White House’s COVID-19 Equity
Summit. The Center for Black Health & Equity (The Center) joined this cohort to
showcase how organizations across the U.S. are doing their part to center equity to
battle COVID-19 and move their communities through the pandemic.
The Center presented TruthCheck, a national campaign that gives Black communities
facing misinformation online and in real life the tools to verify information on social
media before sharing with family and friends.
The Center presented strategies from the first year of the campaign, which was funded
by the CDC Foundation’s Partnering for Vaccine Equity initiative. This included the
development of the Truth Check Training, a self-guided media literacy course
accessible through thetruthcheck.org, and the use of influencers to reach
broader audiences.
The summit included presentations about hyper-local approaches to public health, the
power of partnerships and health equity. In addition to the other presenters who share
how their work has helped to move the needle on an equitable approach to COVID-19
vaccinations, we demonstrated how our approach has helped people identify
misleading information online and made them more hesitant to share information before
verifying it.
FUNDING STATEMENT: This program is supported by a sub-award from the CDC
Foundation and is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award
totaling $25,660,048 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an
endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.
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