Vol. 1, No. 29
Action Items:
  • Contact your EIT with ideas for journal supplements.
Dear RADx-UP Partners,
The Omicron variant is in the news and on our minds, just as many of us are pausing for the end-of-the-year holidays and traveling for family visits or well-earned vacations. It’s too early to draw conclusions about Omicron’s transmissibility or virulence, and also too early to draw conclusions about current vaccines’ ability to protect against it.

For now we recommend monitoring the following sources of scientific updates about this variant of concern:
 
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has this page about the Omicron variant.
  • The Tracking US Coronavirus Testing Capacity Weekly Newsletter is a good source of news and updates. Subscribe here.
  • This FDA web page has important updates related to the Omicron variant, including analysis that has identified certain EUA-authorized molecular tests whose performance may be impacted by mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.
Attn: Community Partners
Join other community partners for an open discussion at Community Connections on Wed., Jan. 26 from 1:30 p.m. ET to 3:00 p.m. ET to discuss our shared goal of equity through engagement. Register here.
Discussed at the Project-wide Meeting
The monthly RADx-UP Project-wide Meeting on Dec. 9 covered three main topics:

  1. An introduction to the new Colectiv electronic data capture platform; learn more here.
  2. A discussion about themes/topics for potential journal supplements that RADx-UP projects can contribute to in 2022; the Publications & Dissemination Committee will coordinate proposals to journals and facilitate manuscript editing and submission. Contact your EIT to suggest timely themes, appropriate journals, and your interest in contributing a manuscript.
  3. One Rapid Research Pilot project, led by Priya Sarin Gupta, is creating a community-partnered infrastructure to accelerate COVID testing among individuals experiencing homelessness. They set up temporary testing and vaccination sites in neighborhoods in need, walk the streets to invite participation, and return three weeks later where about 90% of the patients return for the second dose. Watch the short video.

Watch a recording of the meeting here and if you haven't filled out this five-minute survey to help us evaluate the goals of the meeting, you are invited to do it now.
At-home testing projects
A new research article in BMC Public Health describes the study protocol used for the Say Yes! COVID Test project that was supported by RADx-UP.

Building on that work, the CDCC partners (Duke Clinical Research Institute, Center for Health Equity Research at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health) have collaborated with the United Way in Merced County, Calif., to launch You & Me COVID-Free, a RADx-UP program designed to provide free COVID-19 tests and evaluate whether they are an effective way to reduce community transmission when used prior to gathering with others. The project will also study effective models for community-engaged research so that it can scale to new communities across the nation. Learn more.
Keynote Address: The Importance of Serving with Intention
The Rev. Dr. Kendrick Curry, senior pastor of the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., delivered the final keynote speech on day two of the RADx-UP COVID-19 Equity Evidence Academy. Rev. Curry recounted how his church has served its community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and how serving with intention can build productive partnerships and solutions for addressing the effects of COVID-19 in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Learn more and watch his inspiring talk.
Scientific Meeting Presentations now Available
The RADx-UP consortium gathered for its first online RADx-UP Scientific Meeting this fall to hear 11 presentations by research teams spanning Hawaii to Connecticut.

The 11 RADx-UP projects shared preliminary findings from data collected and the lessons learned in expanding testing and vaccination in their communities.

All presentation recordings from the RADx-UP Scientific Meeting are now available in the video library.

Thanks again to the projects that presented at the meeting!
Spread Kindness, not COVID this holiday season
The team at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center has developed holiday-themed COVID-19 materials RADx-Up projects are free to use. Get the files here.
Updates and improvements to myRADx-UPhome
The myRADx-UPhome site, with tools and materials for the RADx-UP consortium, now has updated site navigation, redesigned home and landing pages, and a new search function. Review the release notes (linked) to learn more.
Newsletter Archive
Previous editions of the RADx-UP CDCC Newsletter are archived on the Communications Toolkit page of myRADx-UPhome.
Please contact us at RADx-UP-CDCC@duke.edu or through your assigned CDCC EIT (see current list under Engagement Impact Teams).

Use this form to alert the CDCC to resources like the item above or other information coming out of your project or community.