With Friday marking the second annual International Long COVID Awareness Day, Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) and Rep. Tyrone Carter (D-Detroit) paid a visit to a mobile health unit that has been providing Detroit residents with free screenings experiencing respiratory issues after a COVID-19 infection.
The mobile health unit opened in December through a partnership between People.Health, Moderna, Team Wellness Center and other community organizations to offer individuals no-cost CT screenings looking for lung damage from risk factors including Long COVID.
Partnerships like this one have been key in bringing health care resources into communities that may not have a clinic or hospital, Tate said.
How Long COVID has become the ‘silent pandemic’
“It seems like a lifetime since we’ve been dealing with COVID, but it’s only really been four years that we’ve been handling it, so, you know, having these partnerships with Moderna, Team Wellness, and other community partners is incredibly critical,” Tate said.
In April 2020, Michigan established its COVID-19 Racial Disparities Task Force, aimed at addressing the disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases and mortality among Black residents.
While the task force helped successfully close the racial gap in COVID-19 cases and deaths, its health equity work continued beyond the pandemic supporting improved access to health care and telehealth, through efforts including mobile health units.
In the state general government budget for Fiscal Year 2024, Michigan allocated $7 million to support the development of mobile health units, which are used to fill gaps in access to health care services. The inclusion of this funding came at the recommendation of the task force.
In addition to providing pathways for people to receive support, partnering with trusted community organizations may help overcome some individual’s resistance to seeking care, Tate said.
Phillip Levy, People.Health’s chief medical officer, said delivering place-based and accessible medical services is critical, especially in addressing Long COVID concerns.
“You have a lot of underserved members of the community who may have been experiencing persistent symptoms after COVID, shortness of breath, fatigue, what have you,” Levy said. “They’ll go to their doctor or they’ll go to an urgent care and people will say, ‘Hey, there’s really nothing we can do, there’s nothing wrong.’”
Across the nation, an estimated 17.5 million people currently have Long COVID, with data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey finding more than 17% of adults in Michigan have experienced Long COVID.
“If you do have ongoing damage in your lungs and you have other problems related to your COVID, it’s important to know and it’s important to, you know, see what things might be able to mitigate it,” Levy said.
While the focus of the screenings is to address lung damage from COVID-19. these screenings have been beneficial in uncovering a range of other conditions.
“We’ve picked up a number of cancers already. People who’ve had thyroid nodules and it turned out to be thyroid cancer would never have known,” Levy said. “We had a gentleman early on who came through, had a big mass blocking his stomach, was losing 30 pounds over the last month, would never have known this,” Levy said.
The screenings have also detected lung nodules, which can be a sign of lung cancer, and high amounts of coronary calcium which is one of the most important indicators of early-onset coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the country, Levy said.
“If we can detect this and get people in for screening, and encourage them before they get symptoms, maybe they’re not going to drop dead of a heart attack, and that’s what we want,” Levy said.
These screenings have also allowed Moderna and People.Health to study how lungs function following Long COVID outcomes, said James Mansi, vice president of medical affairs for the United States at Moderna.
“That’s going to shed an important piece of light around our understanding of the impact that COVID has had on lung function. But to get to that we need to bring that awareness around maintaining one’s health, about screening, and part of that is this lung CT,” Mansi said.
“So we’re working with the community, getting them involved, and at the same time asking them ‘Well, would you be interested in participating in a research study looking at lung function, following COVID,’” Mansi said.
More than 94% of individuals have agreed to participate in these trials, which speaks to the trust that these organizations have built with their community, Mansi said.
Following the screening People.Health will contact people with their results, and if there is a finding, they will be instructed to contact their primary care provider. If they do not have a provider, Team Wellness Center provides primary care and will follow up, said Dani Hourani, Team Wellness Center’s director of community development.
“We are more than willing [and] able to be a partner and assist anybody. We will get them into an appointment right away and get them situated and set up with the specialist that they might need,” Hourani said.
“It’s not just about getting a screening and handing you your results and saying good luck. We want to make sure there’s the follow up part. What can we do to help you and your next steps and your healing,” Hourani said.
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