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In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged against a backdrop of long-standing racial inequities that contributed to significant disparities in COVID-19 mortality, morbidity, and eventually, vaccination rates. COVID-19 also converged with two social crises: anti-Black racism and community and police violence. The goal of this study was to examine the associations between community violence, police violence, anti-Black racism, and COVID-19 vaccination. Survey data were collected from a sample of 538 Black residents of Chicago between September 2021 and March 2022. Structural equation modeling was used to test associations between neighborhood violence, police violence, racism, medical mistrust, trust in COVID-related information, depressive symptoms, and having received a COVID-19 vaccination. In line with predictions, neighborhood violence had a significant indirect effect on vaccination via trust in COVID-related information from a personal doctor. Additionally, racism had a significant indirect effect on vaccination via trust in COVID-related information from a personal doctor, as well as via medical mistrust and trust in COVID-related information from a personal doctor. These findings add to the growing body of literature demonstrating the importance of medical mistrust when examining COVID-19 vaccination disparities. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of considering how social and structural factors such as violence and racism can influence medical mistrust.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created life-disrupting stressors that disproportionately burden disadvantaged communities with devastating impacts that extend far beyond the burden of the disease itself, including joblessness, housing and food insecurity, educational system upheavals, isolation due to disrupted relationships, worsened mental health and substance use and violence. Socially interconnected community members are resources whose efforts can be mobilised to improve COVID-19 coping within their social networks. This research examined the feasibility, acceptability, and reach of a social media-based peer influencer intervention for COVID-19 coping. Over a 9-month period in 2020, the project enrolled 1253 social influencers in Milwaukee-primarily ethnic and racial minorities-who regularly received and passed along messages to members of their social networks that provided advice about COVID-19 pandemic coping, economic survival, health protection, mental health, family needs, social justice and other impacts. Messages were shared by influencers with others over social media and also text messages, phone calls and conversations. Facebook social media tracking metrics objectively measured the community reach of social influencers' messages. Quantitative surveys and qualitative follow-up interviews with a subset of influencers also measured the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Social media monitoring metrics showed that, by the end of the project, influencers' messages reached an average of 7978 unique individuals per week and had an average of 13,894 total views per week, with more than 140,000 total cumulative organic impressions. More than half of social influencers indicated that-beyond Facebook message sharing-they shared COVID-19 prevention, care, and coping messages with social network members in conversations, phone calls and text messages. Social influencers reported that they valued having the opportunity to help community members to cope with pandemic stressors by conveying practical COVID-19 coping advice., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected sexual health services. Given the burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) on sexual and gender minorities (SGMs), we estimated incidence of self-reported STI diagnoses and factors associated with STI diagnoses among SGMs during the pandemic's first year., Methods: A cohort of 426 SGM persons, 25 years or older, recruited in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Houston completed 5 online surveys from April 2020 to February 2021. Persons self-reported on each survey all health care provider STI diagnoses. Kaplan-Meier was used to estimate the cumulative risk of STI diagnoses, stratified by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status. Factors associated with STI diagnoses were assessed with a longitudinal negative binomial regression., Results: Median age was 37 years, and 27.0% were persons living with HIV (PLH). Participants reported 63 STIs for a cumulative incidence for PLH and HIV-negative persons of 0.19 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.13-0.29) and 0.12 (95% CI, 0.09-0.17), respectively. Regardless of HIV, a younger age and changes in health care use were associated with STI diagnoses. Among HIV-negative persons, the rate of STI diagnoses was higher in Houston than the Midwest cities (adjusted relative risk, 2.37; 95% CI, 1.08-5.20). Among PLH, a decrease in health care use was also associated with STI diagnoses (adjusted relative risk, 3.53; 95% CI, 1.01-12.32 vs no change in health care services), as was Hispanic ethnicity and using a dating app to meet a sex partner., Conclusions: Factors associated with STI diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic generally reflected factors associated with STI incidence before the pandemic like geography, HIV, age, and ethnicity., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: None declared., (Copyright © 2022 American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association. All rights reserved.)

Background: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated academic medicine into the frontline of research and clinical work, leaving some faculty exhausted, and others with unanticipated time off. Women were particularly vulnerable, having increased responsibilities in both academic work and caregiving. Methods: The authors sought to determine faculty's responses to the pandemic, seeking predictors of accelerated versus decelerated academic productivity and work-life balance. In this survey of 424 faculty from a private Midwest academic medical center completed in August-September 2020, faculty rated multiple factors both "pre-COVID" and "during the COVID-19 lockdown," and a change score was calculated. Results: In a binary logistic regression model comparing faculty whose self-rated academic productivity increased with those whose productivity decreased, the authors found that controlling for multiple factors, men were more than twice as likely to be in the accelerated productivity group as women. In a similar model comparing partnered faculty whose self-rated work-life balance increased with partnered faculty whose work-life balance decreased, being in the positive work-life balance group was predicted by increased academic productivity, increased job stress, and having higher job priority than your partner. Conclusions: While the COVID-19 pandemic placed huge stressors on academic medical faculty, pandemic placed huge stressors on academic medical faculty, some experienced gains in productivity and work-life balance, with potential to widen the gender gap. As academic medicine evolves post-COVID, leaders should be aware that productivity and work-life balance predict each other, and that these factors have connections to work location, stress, and relationship dynamics, emphasizing the inseparable connections between work and life success.

Prior research has highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV prevention services within the U.S., but few studies have explored this impact through an exploratory, qualitative lens. In this study, we sought to highlight the voices of young sexual minority men (YSMM) 17-24 years old and explored the perceived impact of the pandemic on HIV prevention among a diverse, nationwide sample of YSMM who participated in synchronous online focus group discussions between April and September 2020. Forty-one YSMM described the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV testing and prevention services, including limited and disrupted access to HIV testing, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. COVID-19-related challenges were compounded by ongoing, pre-COVID-19 barriers experienced by YSMM in the U.S. For instance, many YSMM relocated back home with family, causing men to avoid HIV prevention services for fear of outing themselves to relatives. YSMM also worried about placing their family at increased risk of COVID-19 by attending clinical appointments. YSMM who did seek HIV prevention services, including access to PrEP, experienced significant barriers, including limited appointment availability and services not tailored to YSMM. Further efforts are needed to support YSMM re-engaging in HIV prevention during and after the COVID-19 era., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

As communities struggle with how to cope with the health and social consequences of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), sexual and gender minority men living with or affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic have important insights into how to cope with uncertainty, public health protocols, and grief. We recruited sexual and gender minority men using online networking apps from April 18-24, 2020 to enroll a longitudinal cohort. We analyzed baseline qualitative data from open-ended responses using content analysis to examine how the HIV/AIDS epidemic has helped sexual minority men with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 437 participants who completed the survey, 155 (35%) indicated that HIV/AIDS had helped them cope with COVID-19. Free-response data from those 135 of those participants clustered around four themes: (1) experience having lived through a pandemic, (2) experience coping with stigma, (3) familiarity with public health protocols, and (4) belief in collective action. Based on the experiences of these men, public health approaches centered on resilience and collective action could be particularly helpful in responding and coping with COVID-19-especially if the pandemic persists over longer periods of time.