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RAC Convocation Sep 23, 2021 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
September 23, 2021 @ 11:00 am - 5:00 pm UTC+0
Dear colleague,
With the COVID-19 Delta variant wave potentially peaking following the fall 2021 school season start, you are invited to the September 23rd RAC Convocation to discuss what resilient American communities should do next during the pandemic. One set of data seems to indicate that the worst of the Delta variant wave may be waning and that the U.S. and global economy and social infrastructures may be returning to a more normal if not positive scenario. However, there are other indications that the current pandemic and syndemic may be headed into more serious and unknown territory with significant impacts on health systems from vaccine-preventable hospitalizations and deaths with other secondary and tertiary syndemic impacts.
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86518819843
Meeting ID: 865 1881 9843
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Meeting ID: 865 1881 9843
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Resilient American Communities (RAC) COVID-19 Unity of Effort Convening
September 23, 2021
Agenda
(All Times Below are in U.S. Eastern Standard Time)
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Zoom Access and Networking
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Welcome & Initial Discourse
Today, September 23, the morning session will begin with updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and syndemic trends and progress on the Resilient American Communities COVID-19 initiatives. The Resilient American Communities (RAC) initiative is pushing hard now to help complete the job of vaccinating Americans and improving the prevention and management of the COVID pandemic and syndemic. Joining with the Harvard vaccination equity sprint is one avenue open to RAC sites to move toward higher levels of vaccinations where there are willing individuals and communities seeking greater levels of vaccination-induced immunity. A Harvard Sprint team member will join us tomorrow to answer any questions about the Sprint application process. We will be exploring the RAC team requirements, the session agendas, and desired outcomes with RAC sites laying the foundations of improving enduring unity of effort between community-based organizations (CBOs), community health centers, and public health.
In addition, the 9/23 RAC Convocation morning session will be considering the possibility that the COVID pandemic and syndemic may be going in a different and more seriously negative direction. This week, it has been reported that with more than 675,000 deaths in the U.S., the COVID pandemic has killed more people than the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918, and there is still no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there is a large and enduring split in the U.S. political system in which the controlling majorities in Republican leaning states are making it more difficult for Americans to reduce their COVID risks through vaccination, wearing masks, and engaging other measures to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their community members. As a result, in many places around the nation, health systems are teetering on the edge of crisis standards of care with so many COVID patients that not only are the ICUs over-capacity, but patients needing essential life critical medical procedures are not gaining access to the care desperately need.
After the initial morning updates and discourse, Jan Booher will lead a presentation and discussion about advances in RAC tools and methods and how they might be associated with the Harvard Medical School Vaccination Equity Sprint.
Points of Discussion
What are the key factors in reducing cases, hospitalizations, and death in this phase of the Delta wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (Q4 of 2021 and beyond)?
Has the Delta wave plateaued or will we see another increase in hospitalizations and deaths around the country, following 226,000 new COVID cases in youth populations during the past week?
Are the vaccination rates changing dramatically in the hardest-hit states and communities? If not, why are they so slow to adapt to increasing risks?
Is it possible to see an emerging COVID-19 variant with both immune escape and high lethality in the vaccinated populations or in younger populations?
With such high rates of youth infection associated with super-spreading in schools and universities, what might we expect in terms of long-haul COVID and inter-generational impacts?
How will RAC and Harvard Sprint efforts enhance vaccination equity and health equity in the most vulnerable and disenfranchised populations with micro-targeted data and hyper-local community engagement?
What kinds of grants, contracts, and new forms of unity of effort are making a key difference in resilient American communities?
How are advances in RAC tools and methods contributing to reduction in cases?
What would be the benefits for our community to participate in the Harvard Vaccination Equity Sprint?
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM Break and Networking
Jonathan Peck will be facilitating informal discussions during this networking session.
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Afternoon Discourse
Janice Lucas, from the RAC Bay County in the Florida Panhandle will facilitate the afternoon updates and discussions.
The status of RAC sites around the U.S. will be reviewed in regards to stages of development and use of RAC systems.
Regions, states, and communities will provide updates on the progress of their work.
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM Break and Networking
Dr. Joe Rosen from Dartmouth Medical School and Engineering Department will lead a discussion associated with the following questions:
What would it be like to be living in a community in which the vaccine-preventable hospitalizations and deaths were so high that timely routine access to medical procedures were curtailed and COVID patients were subject to rationed care under “crisis standards of care?”
What would be the impact of having communities in 20 or more states operating under “crisis standards of care” as a result of policies that restricted the value of COVID vaccinations, mask use, and other common sense pandemic and syndemic prevention and disease management?
What types of health system transformations could significantly reduce the probability of health system disruptions and other economic, social, and political economic impacts from overwhelming numbers of COVID cases hospitalizations, and deaths?
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Presentation and Reflections
The first half of this session will focus on RAC sites participating in the Harvard Vaccination Equity Sprint. Lindsay Hunt from the Harvard Medical School Department of Primary Health Care will provide Sprint updates and answer any questions you might have about the Sprint opportunity starting in early October.
The second half of this session will address advances in RAC Centers of Excellence.
4:15 PM – 5:00 PM Closing Remarks
5:00 PM Conclusion of Meeting
Post-Meeting Comment Period—Discussion for those who care to participate
RAC Workgroups focus on the national, regional, state, bioregional and local rollout of RAC research, plans, policies, procedures, and standards of practice, including but not limited to the follow areas:
- Communities, Regions, States, Territorial, Tribal Networking (CRSTTN) Initiatives
- Strategic Planning to Operations
- Vaccination Program
- RAC Systems Rapid Replication and Scaling
- Guidance and Training for New RAC Site Development
- Content Management
- RAC Technical Services
- Data Management
- MPHISE Analytics
- Exposure Notification
- Health System Resilience
- Center of Excellence Development
- RAC Graph and Social Network Analysis; Supernode, Node & Network Linkages
- Serious Games (Simulated Solutions Exercises, Massive Multi-player Games)
- COVID-19 Environmental Testing
- FAC Team Formation and Deployment
- Early Identification and Response in Probable Outbreak Areas and Hot Zones
- Interventions to Create SARS-CoV-2 Cooling and Cold Zones
- Certifying Cooling, Cool, and Cold Zones for Opening up Economic and Social Activities
- FAC Teams for Rapid Response in Urgent Circumstances
- RAC COVID-19 Community Policies
- COVID-19 Mental Health / Psychosocial Environment / Well-being
- Vital Conditions Mapping
- Syndemic Mission Critical Functions Assessment/Gap Resolution
- Syndemic Cascading Effects
- International Health Security
- Rural and Frontier Communities
- SDOH in Vulnerable Communities
- National Framework for SDOH Common Core & Supplemental Datasets
- Interagency
- Management and Governance
RAC workgroups are now meeting regularly to replicate and scale RAC sites and activities across the U.S. Please let us know if you have an interest in the activities of a specific RAC workgroup. RAC workgroup and Centers of Excellence updates will be provided within the July and August convenings, in case you have an interest in joining RAC workgroup efforts or want to work with Center of Excellence teams to advance your RAC sites or projects.
Focus Agility Convergence (FAC) Teams will focus on rapid response and carrying out improvements to mission critical functions and other RAC objectives, including for example:
- RAC Vaccination Equity Assessment
- RAC Center of Excellence Development
- RAC Site Development
- RAC Site COVID-19 Risk Communication Associated with COVID Super-transmission
- RAC Seasonal and Special Event Risk Communication
- RAC Serious Games (virtual community exercises)
- Emergency RAC Site Development
- COVID Hot Spot Management
- Management of RAC Communities in Extreme Vulnerability or Collapse
- Management of RAC Communities Facing Extreme Events Threatening Their Resilience
For those ready to engage in more indepth RAC work, please inquire about RAC site developments, workgroups and RAC rapid response teams at:
http://resilientamericancommunities.org
A new calendar of RAC events and training is now available at the above website.
In addition to joining us as you can from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Time for the September 23 RAC convening, please hold the following dates and times for upcoming Resilient American Communities (RAC) COVID-19 Initiative Convocations:
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Time Thursday, October 14, 2021
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Time Thursday, October 28, 2021
The RAC Convocations are always scheduled on the second and fourth Thursday of the month.
We look forward to seeing you this week on Thursday, September 23, 2021.
For those of you, just learning about the RAC, see an introductory overview attached. Also please join us at:
http://ResilientAmericanCommunities.org/
Mike
Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.
Coordinator
Resilient American Communities RAC) Initiative
Executive Director
Health Initiatives Foundation, Inc.