Maryland Congressional Delegation Announces More Than $8.3 Million for Johns Hopkins University Research on COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) today joined the Baltimore Congressional Delegation in announcing $8,310,893 in federal funding for Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to research COVID-19 health disparities among underserved populations and minority communities.

"COVID-19 has exposed longstanding inequities in our health system, leaving Black, Latino and Indigenous communities in Maryland and around the nation vulnerable to higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death," the lawmakers said. "This federal funding will help Johns Hopkins University expand its efforts to boost COVID-19 testing and response efforts to meet the needs of marginalized communities of color. Team Maryland will continue to secure federal resources to combat COVID-19 across the state and eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities."

Awards include:

• $3,517,791 for "Protecting Native Families from COVID-19," a JHU study to address high COVID-19 mortality rates among American Indian and Navajo Nation communities.
  
• $3,222,658 for the Johns Hopkins Center for AIDS Research to study the effectiveness of testing strategies to address disparities among African American, Latino and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations in Baltimore.
  
• $1,570,444 for Juntos (Together), a JHU collaborative community-led initiative to increase COVID-19 testing in the Latino/Latina community in Baltimore.
  

Funding comes from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RADx Underserved Populations initiative, which aims to understand COVID-19 disparities among communities disproportionately affected by the disease. NIH has awarded nearly $234 million through this program to improve COVID-19 testing for underserved and vulnerable populations nationwide.

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