New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas Kristof today named the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health as a key organization fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on the front lines, as part of his efforts to raise awareness and support for this work. In a New York Times column published online today, Kristof included the Center in his C-19 Impact Initiative, a fundraising effort to support organizations working around the clock to fight COVID-19 and save lives.
Based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Center for American Indian Health works in partnership with tribal communities across the country to improve the health, self-sufficiency, and health leadership of Native peoples.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be selected by Nicholas Kristof as part of his C-19 Impact Initiative, since Native Americans are at very high risk during this COVID-19 pandemic due to systemic health disparities,” said Allison Barlow, PhD, MPH, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. “Our Center will be able to leverage this designation to support a robust team of much-needed infectious disease, mental health, behavioral health, training, and communications experts, as well as more than 200 boots on the ground—Native health workers in their own communities serving courageously during this time—in the battle against COVID-19 and its devastating impacts.”
The Center for American Indian Health’s COVID-19 response involves providing a wide array of resources including technical assistance and direct services to tribal leaders for contact tracing, surveillance, testing and mitigation; delivery of critical protective gear and medical supplies; and emergency food, water, cleaning, and other household supplies. The Center is also disseminating COVID-19 prevention information and resources to tribal communities and coordinating its efforts with the federal Indian Health Service and tribal health and human service departments.