Immigrant and refugee communities are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 due to pre-existing social and health disparities. In King County, COVID-19 incidence among Black individuals is 2.8-times higher than White individuals. In addition, communities with limited English proficiency have elevated rates of hospitalization particularly in Washington state. King County testing data has not been disaggregated by racial groups, limiting our knowledge on community testing needs. To better understand these issues, our team has collaborated with the Somali Health Board (SHB) to explore the barriers to COVID-19 testing within the King County Somali Community, where approximately 30,000 Somali immigrants reside. We administered anonymous surveys to Somali and non-Somali participants aged ≥18 (n=540) at testing fairs in South King County and recruited through community outreach. Survey data were used to quantitatively determine prevalence and correlates of timely COVID-19 testing within the King County Somali Community (defined as testing within 2 days of symptom onset). We conducted in-depth interviews with healthcare workers (n=5) and policymakers (n=5) to qualitatively explore the barriers and facilitators of testing in the community. We hosted two virtual focus group discussions -- one female-identifying group (n=10) and one male identifying group (n=10) -- with members from the King County Somali community to gather personal experiences of COVID-19 testing barriers and concerns. Our preliminary results suggest that there is a trend towards longer time from symptom onset to test for Somali respondents and that Somali respondents face various barriers to testing such as distrust, misinformation, stigma, language barriers, and transportation. This work is critical to help identify Somali community barriers to COVID-19 testing and how they can be adequately mitigated to improve access and promote equity in King County’s pandemic response.

A patient’s experience and their health outcome can depend on numerous factors: (1) financial security of the healthcare institution, (2) patient’s insurance type, and (3) the performance of care delivered by healthcare providers. The aim of this study focuses on socioeconomic factors such as a healthcare facility’s financial status and the patient’s insurance which influence their health outcomes. The study is a meta-analysis using health outcomes and providers’ institutions. Findings show that having strong financial security of the healthcare institution allows providers to meet each patient’s numerous needs. This can range from having the necessary resources to provide treatment or the ability to develop programs and systems that ensure providers are meeting or exceeding the standard quality of care. Results also reveal patients without insurance coverage will result in a lower probability of receiving treatment options, thus experiencing worse health outcomes than patients who are privately insured. The amount and quality of care that goes into each patient is different since it’s based on the provider’s capacity, the educational background their practice came from, or, in some cases, the patient’s cooperation towards the treatment. These aspects, although unique from each other, all contribute towards achieving optimal patient health outcomes. Future research should examine the provider-patient interaction to learn more about how the experience can positively or negatively affect the patient’s health outcome.

According to the 1991-2015 Combined National Youth Behavioral Risk Surveys, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander adolescents had rates of attempted suicide two times higher than non-Hispanic Whites. However, there is a great lack of research and resources dedicated to Pacific Islander mental health. This literature review seeks to understand the unique experiences of Pacific Islanders in regards to their mental health. I reviewed 10 research articles concerning mental health in the Pacific Islander community, with a focus on adolescence and emerging adulthood since this is a critical developmental period that impacts the lifetime health outcomes of a population. These studies range in focus from documenting personal experiences to general disparities that impact this population. In the literature, I found that Pacific Islander youth experienced higher rates of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and psychological distress in comparison to non-Hispanic whites and other minority groups like Hispanics in the United State. These findings signal that future research should focus on identifying and better understanding the risk and protective factors that impact mental health outcomes in Pacific Islander communities. This literature review helps summarize the small existing literature, identify gaps in research about Pacific Islander mental health, and inform future research questions.

The field of firearm injury and violence (FIV) research in the health sciences has been impacted by federal funding restrictions over the last two decades, leading this field to be one of the least researched leading causes of death. Little is known about the funding status and funding sources of published articles in this field. We performed a scoping review of FIV publications in the health sciences with the goal of characterizing the funding sources for firearm injury research during the past 20 years. We identified health sciences articles published in journals between January 2000 and December 2019 and indexed in PubMed through keyword searches for explicitly firearm-focused literature. Four reviewers independently screened 6,266 articles to include original, empirical research articles whose core objective addressed the causes, consequences, prevention, or characterization of firearm injury or violence in the U.S. Articles where the reviewers disagreed were reviewed by a senior researcher. A total of 812 articles were included and subsequently examined for evidence of a funding source. Our analysis showed that 119(14.7%) of the articles explicitly declared not having received any funding for the study, and 240(29.6%) articles had no explicit declaration of funding. 453(55.8%) of the included articles declared at least one source of funding. Among those with funding, 232(51.2%)of the articles were found to have reported at least one philanthropic grant and 221(48.9%) reported at least one federal grant. While the total volume of original, empiric research more than tripled from 2000 through 2019, the number of articles reporting funding was 31.9% lower in 2019 than in 2000 (87.5%; 95% CI: 16.7%-47.2%). The results of this study show promise for the future of FIV research funding, aid current firearm researchers who hope to identify new opportunities for funding and demonstrate the current limited financial resources available to researchers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of understanding indirect routes of transmission for infectious microorganisms and how we can implement barriers to prevent it. As we have observed with SARS-CoV-2, a virus’s ability to survive on surfaces plays a significant role in its ability to spread via fomites and surfaces. Surrogate viruses such as pseudomonas bacteriophages phi-6 and MS2 coliphages are common surrogate viruses for enveloped and non-enveloped viral pathogens such as coronaviruses and norovirus, respectively. Our objective was to determine 1) how long phi-6 and MS 2 are viable on surfaces as a result of different temperatures and relative humidity and 2) the efficacy of HOBr and HOCl disinfection to inactive these viruses on surfaces. Phage dried on stainless steel were incubated at various temperature and relative humidity conditions and sampled over time to determine the viral die-off rate. Separately, dried phages were treated with various concentrations of HOCl or HOBr to evaluate the disinfection capabilities of these solutions. Viral viability and quantification were determined using plaque assays. We found that phi-6 and MS2 die-off at much higher rates with increasing humidity and temperature. HOBr and HOCl treated phages are reduced over 6-logs at 50ppm and 5 minutes contact time with HOCl and HOBr. These results indicate that these surrogate phages and their respective pathogens are viable long enough to be a public health concern and that hypohalous agents are promising compounds for future surface disinfection.