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Report: Housing Inequities Are Worsening for Latinos


Sad evicted mother with child worried relocating house

Close to 40% of Americans struggle to meet the rising costs of housing, and Latinos especially face hardship in affordable housing as the pandemic worsened inequities, says a new report. As the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are struggling with soaring home and rent prices, affordability issues, and the risk of eviction and foreclosure, according to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2021 from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Latinos and other people of color are impacted on a greater scale. "Millions of households that lost income during the shutdowns are behind on their housing payments and on the brink of eviction or foreclosure," the report states. "A disproportionately large share of these at-risk households are renters with ...

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Meet the 2021 Exito! Latino Cancer Research Trainees


Exito 2021 summer institute cohort of latino training participants

Program leaders have selected 26 aspiring Latino researchers from across the nation to join the 2021 cohort of Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training at UT Health San Antonio. Each year, Éxito! recruits U.S. master’s level students and professionals to participate in a five-day, culturally tailored Éxito! summer institute to promote pursuit of a doctoral degree and cancer research. The 26 new participants were selected from a deep pool of applicants. Each participant now will join the Éxito! summer institute on June 7-11, 2021 in San Antonio. They will interact with Latino researchers and doctoral experts to learn about Latino cancer, succeeding in a doctoral program, and the diversity of research careers. Meet the 2021 Éxito! Ccohort Leslie Aragon, ...

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Dr. Amelie Ramirez: Answering the Big Questions on COVID-19 Vaccines


Dr. Amelie Ramirez san antonio women's hall of fame

Some groups get vaccinated for the COVID-19 vaccine at much lower rates. Why is this? How can we build vaccine confidence? Dr. Amelie Ramirez and her team at UT Health San Antonio are working hard to promote vaccine confidence and answer big questions about the vaccine. Ramirez is doing this in a variety of ways: Creating the Salud America! COVID-19 Vaccine “Change of Heart” Bilingual Storytelling Campaign to share real people who moved from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine confidence. Producing Salud America!'s weekly updated post on U.S. vaccination rates, ways to improve confidence, and how to overcome vaccine misinformation. Joining the Latino USA podcast to answer COVID-19 vaccine questions. Providing a vaccine Q&A for UT Health San Antonio. Joining ...

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New $9.8 Million Study is 1st to Seek Full Understanding of the Latino Cancer Survivorship Journey


New $9.8 Million Study is 1st to Seek Full Understanding of the Latino Cancer Survivorship Journey

Latinos with cancer face a tough survivorship journey. Many suffer advanced disease, poor quality of life, and stressful social and economic inequities. This is why a new, first-of-its-kind national cohort study will unpack the social, cultural, behavioral, psychosocial, biological, and medical influences on post-cancer life in Latino cancer survivors to fill a crucial gap in knowledge about their survivorship experience. The study, “Avanzando Caminos (Leading Pathways): The Hispanic/Latino Cancer Survivorship Study,” is funded by a 6-year, $9.8-million grant from the National Cancer Institute that will team up two of its Cancer Centers, the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of ...

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Virtual Town Hall: Minority Health, Community Leaders Fight COVID Together


Virtual Town Hall Minority Health, Community Leaders Fight COVID Together faces

COVID-19 has a disparate impact on people of color. Latinos, for example, suffer higher case and death rates than their White peers. At the same time, Latinos are getting vaccinated for the COVID-19 vaccine at much lower rates. This is the focus of a Facebook Live town hall, "Making It Plain — Minority Health Professionals and Community Organizations Fight COVID Together," set for 7-8:45 p.m. ET, Wednesday, April 28, 2021. Update 4/29/21: In case you missed it, watch the video here. Panelists include: Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, is Director of the Salud America! program and its multi-level efforts to promote action and information about COVID-19 and Latinos, Professor and Chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences, and Director of the Institute for Health ...

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Salud America! Gets $650,000 Genentech Grant to Bring More People into Cancer, Alzheimer’s Research


Latino cancer patient smiling with doctor nurse clinic

Did you know that Latinos represent 18.5% of the U.S. population, but are less than 10% of those in federal cancer and drug studies? This makes it hard for researchers to create treatments that work best for Latinos, which in turn, can help all people. To engage more people in research, the Salud America! program has received a three-year, $650,000 grant from Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to create tailored recruitment strategies for clinical trials in cancer treatment and Alzheimer’s disease. Salud America!, established in 2007, produces multimedia research, tools, and stories to fuel its digital network—over 400,000 moms and dads and health, community, and school leaders across the nation—toward healthy changes that ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to be ...

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