The Biden administration spent $500,000 in taxpayer money on a program in Texas that aims to counter COVID-19 “misinformation and disinformation” within the Hispanic community.
The grant was issued by the FDA’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity (OMHHE).
“OMHHE’s funding opportunity supports proposals developed by researchers related to COVID-19 to better understand diverse patient perspectives, preferences, and unmet needs,” the agency told The Dallas Express.
A grant description states the program focuses on “Hispanic women, elderly, and persons with chronic diseases, disabilities, and substance use disorders.”
The program started May 10 and will continue until April 2024, reported the Washington Examiner.
As researchers worked over the summer, a spike in confirmed and suspected COVID-19 infections prompted some private institutions to reimpose masking mandates despite the relatively mild symptoms of the most prevalent strains of the virus currently in circulation.
Still, more and more local governmental entities and state lawmakers have moved to block the imposition of such mandates.
Texas Woman’s University (TWU) received the $500,000 taxpayer-funded grant to study the “role misinformation and disinformation has played on COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy,” specifically among Hispanics in El Paso.
According to the grant description, the study has three goals: estimate the “degree of COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation consumed by the Hispanic community,” conduct focus group sessions with the Hispanic community, and complete an “economic impact analysis of proposed informational strategies for Hispanics.”
TWU put out a press release in July after it received the grant, stressing the need to study why Hispanics die at a higher rate from COVID-19 than non-Hispanics.
Rigoberto Delgado, associate professor in health administration at TWU’s Houston campus, is heading up the study, which he said will use advanced analytics to understand the impact of social media on Hispanics when it comes to information about COVID-19.
“Let’s identify those messages, the good, the bad, or the middle, and classify the misinformation and look at the impact of the messages,” Delgado said, per the release.
According to the grant description, the study will evaluate social media platforms in both English and Spanish, with researchers developing a “longitudinal misinformation/disinformation index, which will allow estimating degrees of misinformation and disinformation impact over time and between ethnic groups.”
It will also examine “the risk and perception of COVID-19 emergencies” among Hispanics.
The FDA grant continues an effort by the Biden administration to counter what it defines as misinformation and disinformation.
Last year, the CDC announced a $1 million grant to research how “vaccine misinformation” on social media impacts the public’s confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. Relatedly, the Department of Homeland Security launched a “Disinformation Governance Board” last year, however, the board disbanded after public backlash.
