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Thomas Alex Washington, Wendell Glenn, Joanna Barreras, Angel Ramos, A COVID-19 Prevention Program to Encourage Vaccination Uptake among Substance-Using Black and Latinx Sexual Minority Men, Health & Social Work, Volume 47, Issue 4, November 2022, Pages 301–304, https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlac022
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused devastating effects on the lives of people worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d.-a). Communities of color were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and existing racial disparities were exacerbated (CDC, n.d.-a). Black and Latinx persons were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths (CDC, n.d.-a; U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.). Similar to the impacts related to COVID-19, people with substance use disorders (SUDs) have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 as well (National Institute for Drug Abuse, n.d.). Further, Black and Latinx persons with mental health problems and SUDs are faced with other challenges (e.g., homelessness, incarceration, facing challenges with physical distancing, washing hands, and self-quarantining) that likely put them at increased risk for COVID-19 (Stern et al., 2021).
Another group disproportionately challenged by the COVID-19 were men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly those with SUDs. Pre-COVID, substance-using MSM had higher prevalence of health disparities including SUDs, mental health needs, higher risk for HIV acquisition, and limited access to needed resources, and these issues were magnified during the COVID-19 pandemic (Arnold et al., 2021; Starks et al., 2020). As a subpopulation, those needs were amplified for Black and Latinx substance-using MSM (BLSUM) due to existing social, structural, and economic health inequities.