If COVID-19 is a test, it鈥檚 one where you have to be prepared for anything.
And testing is something , has been thinking a lot about over the past year, as she and her team launched a program, #COVIDisatest, to combat COVID-19 testing deserts and testing gaps on Chicago鈥檚 West Side.
Beginning in early 2021, Lynch, director of the community health section of RUSH鈥檚 , collaborated with Alive Faith Network on testing deserts 鈥 areas where people have few or no COVID-19 testing options.
The Alive Faith Network is a longstanding partnership between Rush and African-American churches in Chicago, dedicated to improving the health and well-being of members of the African-American community.
'In a trusted place'
The program, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, included the development of COVID-19 testing and research sites at churches throughout Chicago鈥檚 West Side. They targeted areas where people were least likely to be able to access COVID-19 testing options, leading to lower testing rates and higher infection rates within communities.
鈥淲e wanted to put testing sites in a trusted place, and in a place where pastors could easily promote the testing right at their churches,鈥 Lynch said. 鈥淭he church is the center of many lives in our area, the center of the community.鈥
After the launch in early 2021, Lynch and her team saw that needs on the ground had shifted. It was clear that to be most effective, Lynch鈥檚 team needed to focus beyond the immediate connections of the Alive Faith Network.
鈥淢any of the church members are older adults,鈥 Lynch said. 鈥淎t that point all of our pastors were heavily promoting vaccinations, and the older folks got vaccinated really early. So, once we were in the field, COVID was actually being driven by unvaccinated younger people.鈥
Lynch鈥檚 team recalibrated quickly and determined that to meet the true needs of the community, they also needed to reach young people, and those who still weren鈥檛 vaccinated. And they needed to get creative.
Social media campaign
In addition to on-site services, Lynch and her team committed to reaching out to this harder-to-find community by launching #COVIDisatest, an focused on encouraging testing within Chicago鈥檚 young Black community. The campaign and accompanying website celebrates the strength and resilience of the community, and shows the many reasons why they might want to test. It provides resources on COVID-19, testing locations, educational videos and community stories about individuals鈥 experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying promote at-home testing with this higher-risk community,鈥 Lynch said. 鈥淭he situation on the ground is constantly changing. It can be hard to maintain a sense of urgency.鈥
also connects people to locations where they can receive two at-home tests 鈥 one for themselves and one for someone else. The wireless tests send anonymous data back to Lynch鈥檚 team, to monitor testing and positivity rates. They can take them immediately or hold on to them until they are most needed. So far, the program has distributed more than 10,000 at-home tests to the community. And providing extra tests for dissemination beyond the Alive Faith Network's immediate sphere already appears to be reaping benefits.
鈥淎ccording to the initial data we鈥檙e getting, the people getting the extra test tend to be young, male, and unvaccinated,鈥 Lynch said. 鈥淭his is a higher-risk and harder-to-reach population. And we鈥檙e getting there.鈥
