Morehouse School of Medicine learns about $40M grant from TV briefing

Morehouse School of Medicine learned it was the recipient of a new $40 million initiative to fight COVID-19 while watching the White House coronavirus task force hearings Tuesday.

“We found out when everyone found out — by watching the announcement on TV,” Dominic Mack, an associate professor and director of the National Center for Primary Care at the college, said, per The Hill. “It’s gratifying.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced a new partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine to fight COVID-19 in racial and ethnic minority communities, theGrio previously reported. 

READ MORE: HHS awards Morehouse School of Med $40M for COVID-19 relief initiative

“This new partnership between the Morehouse School of Medicine and our Office of Minority Health will work with trusted community organizations to bring information on COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, and other services to the Americans who need it,” said HHS Secretary, Alex Azar in a press release.

.@HHS_ASH just announced the selection of @Morehouse School of Medicine as the awardee for a new $40M initiative to fight #COVID19 in racial and ethnic minority, rural and socially vulnerable communities.

More via @HHSGov & @MinorityHealth: https://t.co/TP24v5Mz1e

— U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) June 23, 2020

The initiative has been named, the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC).

The three-year project designed to work with community-based organizations across the nation to deliver education and information on resources to help fight the pandemic.

“This work will create the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of interventions being deployed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The results of which should lead to a new-found knowledge base to better prepare for and respond to future pandemics, especially in vulnerable communities,” MSM President and Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, said.

Rice added, “The adoption and adaptation of these interventions to vulnerable communities creates a new paradigm for the creation of health equity.”

Mack told NBC News “we will partner at the community level to assure we are reaching and helping the people we need to help.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the HHS grant is believed to be the largest, single federal contribution to the medical school, founded in 1975, in its history.

“This work will create the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of interventions being deployed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19,” said Morehouse School of Medicine President and Dean Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, “the results of which should lead to a new-found knowledge base to better prepare for and respond to future pandemics, especially in vulnerable communities.”

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