# Xavier RCMI Renewal Application-Administrative Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA · 2020 · $200,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Educating Louisiana Health Professionals in communication methods/strategies to
 increase COVID 19 vaccination rates of residents of vulnerable communities
(LaHealthCom)
Introduction
LA ranks first in the US for COVID-19 cases by population with a case rate of 2,960 per 100,000
and is fifth in deaths by population with a death rate of 97 per 100,000. Furthermore, there are
especially disturbing demographic trends in LA with Blacks representing the highest percentage
of cases (40.2%) and second highest percentage of deaths (48.7%). Vaccines for prevention of
COVID-19 are in development with 29 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation, of which 6 are in
Phase 3. To reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality, an approved vaccine must be
disseminated with rapid uptake in the community. Mistrust of the health care system and mistrust
of experimentation create barriers to rapid and wide- spread acceptance of novel COVID-19
preventive and therapeutic interventions among vulnerable groups. Surprisingly, many minority
health care workers who are not now living in vulnerable communities are also reluctant to get
vaccinations and/or to give vaccinations. Our College of Pharmacy have experienced this regularly
among the health care staff with whom they work in vulnerable community clinics, community
pharmacies and churches. This reluctance also occurs among a noteworthy percentage of Xavier’s
pharmacy students.
Louisiana’s Base COVID 19 vaccination grant, “Louisiana Community-Engagement Research
Alliance against COVID-19 in Disproportionately Affected Communities” (La-CEAL - attached)
will achieve understanding of the perceptions of the residents of vulnerable communities about
COVID-19 vaccination in order to develop effective media and communication strategies
focused on the residents of these communities that will increase their knowledge of, and
address barriers to, participation in the vaccination process as well as clinical trials. To fully
implement this strategy will take between 6 and 9 months. However, a variety of health
professionals are already meeting with these residents and, to the extent they can be
encouraged to become vaccinated and learn how to effectively encourage residents of
vulnerable communities to become vaccinated, will have an even more immediate impact that
will be sustainable over time. As such, this proposal will first, identify barriers to COVID 19
vaccination faced by health care providers and successful educational strategies that could be
used to help them overcome these barriers and communicate to vulnerable communities in a
manner that encourages residents to be vaccinated. Second, with a focus on health care staff
working in churches, Federally Qualified Health Clinics and Community Pharmacies in
vulnerable areas as well as Xavier’s College of Pharmacy and Physician Assistant program
faculty and students who staff these organizations, this data will be used to create innovative
educationa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10267793
- **Project number:** 3U54MD007595-12S5
- **Recipient organization:** XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
- **Principal Investigator:** Guangdi Wang
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $200,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2009-09-24 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10267793

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10267793, Xavier RCMI Renewal Application-Administrative Core (3U54MD007595-12S5). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10267793. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*