Innovations and Collaborations Born of Necessity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

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.