Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals, health departments, and other health care providers in Western North Carolina were siloed from one another. Now, as a direct result of responding to this pandemic, they have developed relationships that will last beyond this crisis to advance the health of everyone in the region.

Phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) are segregated to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane of resting mammalian cells. We have previously shown that PS is exposed on the outer surface of virus‐infected cells and on enveloped viruses that bud out of these virus‐infected cells. The internal positioning of PS is maintained by aminophospholipid translocase, suggesting that this transporter is inhibited during viral infection. Because aminophospholipid translocase tranports both PS and PE from the outer to the inner leaflets of the plasma membrane, we hypothesized that PE would also be exposed on the outer surface of virus‐infected cells and on enveloped viruses. If so, the external PE could serve as a target for anti‐viral therapy. To target PE, we modified the 19‐amino‐acid PE‐binding tetracyclic peptide duramycin by conjugating it to biotin (DLB). The modification reduces the hemolytic activity and toxicity of the peptide but retains its PE binding abilities. DLB neutralizes multiple viruses in vitro. DLB also shows therapeutic efficacy in a lethal murine model for human cytomegalovirus. Our study demonstrates the promise of using PE as a target for broad‐spectrum anti‐viral drugs.

Certainly the COVID-19 pandemic will go down in history as one of the most significant public health challenges of our time. Responding to the uncertainty of the pandemic put public health officials, health care and human services providers, and people working in all service industries front and center in the response. Across the board, COVID-19 also elevated systemic racial disparities not only in health care access, but also in access to food, housing, education, and other pillars of a healthy life. Fortunately, countless individuals and institutions in North Carolina approach these challenges with a combination of innovative thinking and norm-breaking collaborations. These innovations and collaborations were born of necessity in the pandemic, but hold great promise for continued applications years into the future. This issue brief and the articles that follow examine several examples of innovation and collaboration in terms of securing, promoting, and administering testing and vaccines; providing virtual health care; producing needed supplies; addressing basic human needs such as housing and food; and using data to inform planning and decision making, all with an eye toward closing disparity gaps and moving toward equity.