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editorial
. 2021 Mar;111(3):366–368. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.306087
Invest in community-based organizations and institutions. Provide direct, longitudinal financial investment in community organizations that partner in clinical research.
Engage community organizations for participant recruitment “plus” (e.g., for vaccine education, deployment, distribution), and fund interventions to increase vaccine uptake (e.g., vaccine educators).
Provide in-kind resources, including technical expertise, mentoring, and clinical and nonclinical resources to help strengthen and build capacity in community organizations.
Provide development resources to minority-owned businesses that are engaged in research-relevant work.
Invest in community participation in research. Cover the cost of adverse events for study participants who do not have insurance or are underinsured.
Establish a seamless system to access care if participants become infected.
Guarantee that all trial participants have access to an approved vaccine, even if from a different trial.
Invest in building trust. Increase transparency of government contracts for manufacturing and distribution.
Require that industry establish contracts with minority-owned businesses in proportion to the public dollars invested.
Engage a nongovernmental “honest broker” organization to monitor vaccine access, community investment, and investment in minority-owned businesses.
Invest in community education and research leadership. Establish programs to improve health and science literacy in communities of color, and increase funding to support the development of careers of racial and ethnic minority investigators who are committed to the study of vaccines and other public health approaches to mitigate pandemics.