Equity for COVID-19 Vaccines and Care | Johns Hopkins Medicine

At Johns Hopkins Medicine, inclusive and equitable access to medical care and health information is a core value of our institution. Our care teams are working with community partners to give vaccines to our most vulnerable eligible residents, to provide access to COVID-19 testing, and to educate and inform our communities hardest hit by this pandemic.

Community Stories

Johns Hopkins Hospital Honors Members of Maryland Army National Guard

group of national guardspeople in front of the hopkins dome

The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) gratefully welcomed 25 Maryland Army National Guard members in January to help navigate what had become the most challenging COVID-19 surge in two years of the pandemic to help provide vaccine testing and vaccines to the community.

See all equity stories

Relatos sobre equidad

En Johns Hopkins Medicine, el acceso inclusivo y equitativo a la atención médica y a la información sobre la salud es un valor fundamental de nuestra institución. Nuestros equipos de profesionales médicos y socios comunitarios están trabajando codo a codo para vacunar a nuestra población elegible más vulnerable, brindar acceso a las pruebas de detección de COVID-19 y educar e informar a nuestras comunidades más golpeadas por esta pandemia.

Learning Resources

Let's Talk Health / Hablemos de Salud

Johns Hopkins Medicine and community partners are working together for vaccine and health equity. Watch our collection of videos addressing vaccine equity.

Johns Hopkins Medicine y las organizaciones locales aúnan esfuerzos para que la población tenga acceso a las vacunas y a servicios médicos adecuados. En estos vídeos abordaremos la igualdad de acceso a las vacunas.

See videos Ver videos

Toolkit for Community Organizations / Kit de herramientas para organizaciones comunitarias

Resources in English

At Johns Hopkins Medicine, we are collaborating with local partners to educate and inform our communities with facts about COVID vaccines. The downloadable resources below are for our community partners to print and share with the people and neighborhoods they serve, especially those with limited access to digital resources.

Resources

Recursos en español

Nosotros en Johns Hopkins Medicine estamos colaborando con socios a nivel local para educar a nuestras comunidades y brindarles información fidedigna sobre las vacunas contra la COVID-19. Los recursos a continuación, que pueden bajarse de Internet, son para que nuestros socios comunitarios los impriman y compartan con las personas y vecindarios a quienes sirven, especialmente aquellos que tienen acceso limitado a recursos en formato digital.

Recursos

Our Initiatives

21224 COVID-19 Response Initiative

To respond to the major surge of COVID-19 infections in Baltimore’s 21224 area code, Johns Hopkins and the BUILD Organization joined forces to enact a robust and urgent containment and prevention strategy.
COVID-19 Community Education Task Force Report

The task force was formed in January 2021 to bring information about vaccine and COVID-19 safety to the Baltimore community. The task force, comprised of Johns Hopkins employees and allies, coordinated and developed dozens of events, campaigns and resources between January and September of 2021.
COVID-19 Anchor Strategy

The Workgroup identifies, develops and deploys interventions in coordination with the Baltimore school system, the city and state health departments, and other agencies and organizations to bring education, testing and other resources to Baltimore communities that are particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
COVID-19 Culturally Appropriate Care, Testing and Follow-up

Juntos seeks to reduce cultural and language isolation for Latinx patients and their families by connecting them with bilingual clinicians. Johns Hopkins clinicians are traveling to homeless shelters, sober living facilities and neighborhoods deemed COVID-19 hot spots to provide on-site testing.

After the 20-week Johns Hopkins-funded East Baltimore Food Access Initiative ended, the University partnered with Baltimore City and Saval Foodservices to continue delivering meals to families in East Baltimore. Through this partnership volunteers from local non-profits, community groups and faith-based organizations assisted with distributing meats, produce and dairy products to families impacted by COVID-19. In November and December, we provided 1,388,800 meals. In total from April to December 2020, we have provided 4,327,000 meals to local families.

Johns Hopkins has provided 200 food boxes per month to the NAACP through the East Baltimore Food Access Initiative since October.
New cases of COVID-19 have been on the rise in areas of Baltimore and state and local mandates were put in place to require mask use. It is critical that people living in Baltimore have access to masks and are encouraged to wear them.

Johns Hopkins procured a donation of 85,000 masks from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Preparedness and Response to meet the need.

The masks were 100% cotton, washable and reusable (up to 15 times), and packaged in sets of five. Hopkins tapped more than 60 local community and faith-based organizations to assist with the distribution including the NAACP, BUILD, The Door, Men and Families Center, Sister’s Together and Reaching, SECDC, The Mix Church and others.

Also, Baltimore Connect, through donations from Johns Hopkins Hospital, has distributed more than 15,000 to its member organizations for distribution in the local residents.
The economic effects of the COVID19 health crisis are widespread and the small business community has suffered tremendously. In response, the JHU Office of Economic Development is hosting a series of small business webinars and town halls that cover topics including:
- Returning to work safely
- Legal considerations for reopening
- And navigating the post COVID business world.
The Office of Economic Development has also produced an Entrepreneurship Matters webinar series that began in July. This series features topics and guests from a variety of industries including beauty, food, beverage, transportation, and real estate development.
JHU and JHM launched a four-part dialogue series about health, race, and social justice.

Series topics included:
- The 4^th Amendment: Use, Misuse, and Case for Police Reform, August 20, 2020
- Protecting Our Youth: Confronting Society’s Role in the Harmonious Development of Adolescents, August 27, 2020
- Immigration Matters: Building Humanity Within a Fractured Immigration Landscape, September 10, 2020
- Decriminalizing Mental Illness: Empathetic Approaches to Mental Health Supports, September 24, 2020
- Road to Equity: Addressing Health Equity and Achieving Restorative Justice Symposium on October 8, 2020
Johns Hopkins office Government and Community Affairs has held briefings for state and local lawmakers about COVID-19 and health disparities and in coordination with the Anchor Strategy Workgroup held public health briefings for business leaders, faith leaders, and non-profit organizations, to disseminate public health information.
Johns Hopkins launched @JH Connects and the weekly JH Connects Newsletter to communicate JH programs, initiatives, and the impact to residents and elected officials. The @JH Connects social media has over 1,600 followers and the distribution list of the newsletter is approximately 3,000.
Since 2000, the Latino Health Initiative (LHI) of the Montgomery County Department of Health & Human Services (MCHHS) has been coordinating efforts in Montgomery County to improve the health outcomes of the Latinx community. Like other jurisdictions, COVID-19 has had a disparate impact on the Latino population in Montgomery County and the LHI has become the primary vehicle for addressing the pandemic in this community.

Johns Hopkins representative, Patricia Rios, MPH, serves on the steering committee for the LHI and ensures that Suburban Hospital is an active participant in the LHI’s programs, including a newly formed ad hoc “Latino Equity Workgroup” to more completely connect the population to available resources.

In August and October 2020, all of the Montgomery County hospitals – including Suburban – partnered with the LHI to assemble and distribute COVID-care kits to 10 partner agencies that serve the Latinx community. Suburban Hospital’s nursing professional development council assembled over 2,100 kits and delivered them to the agencies. The kits included masks, hand sanitizers, toiletries, and information about food support programs and other resources available through the LHI. There are plans for a future distribution of thermometers.

LHI also partnered with the hospitals and the Montgomery County Public Schools to sponsor a program in September to Spanish-speaking parents about the challenges of virtual learning. Suburban Hospital took the lead in planning the event by securing the panelists, designing the flyer, and promoting the program. event was offered on the Zoom and Facebook Live platforms and reached over 500 registered participants. It was subsequently shared and reported over 2,000 “views.” In November, there will be another community forum offered specifically to address the double threat of COVID-19 and influenza and to provide information about testing and share recommendations for timely treatment. This event will also highlight the need to get and availability of flu shots.

The COVID-19 crisis has also made existing food insecurity issues in Montgomery County worse. Suburban Hospital made a cash contribution to a new food distribution program started by a local church in Bethesda and will be conducting a food drive for two weeks in November among employees to gather donations for Manna Food Center’s “most needed” list.
Howard County General Hospital’s COVID-19 testing has been done in conjunction with our faith-based initiative called Journey 2 Better Health. We have partnered with congregations and sponsored and promoted community testing.

For those who have tested positive, we have reached out with our Community Care Team, a program of our Population Health Division, and provided supports such as food, medicine, follow up care, etc. when needed. We have tested nearly 3,000 county residents.

Read more.
District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) is proud to be working with Johns Hopkins Health System (JHSS) and Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), in partnership with D.C. Department of Health, to successfully vaccinate senior citizens living in DCHA properties in a pilot program.
During the first 120 days, Sibley Memorial Hospital's focus was to target resources for those hardest hit by the pandemic. Beyond protecting our frontline staff, Sibley collaborated with 27 partners who work in communities of color in Washington, D.C. and engaged 70+ Sibley staff members to support these efforts. For more information, contact smh-sibleycommunity@jhmi.edu.

Read more
The COVID-19 Public Private Taskforce is a partnership between the City of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Medicine, CareFirst, and the University of Maryland Medical System to provide guidance for strategic decision making and resources allocation.

Read more