California partnership aided COVID-19 response and health equity, report finds

STOP COVID-19 CA showed how researchers and communities can work together to tackle health disparities

University of California - Riverside

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect everyone equally. Communities of color, especially Latino (including undocumented persons), Black, and Native American groups, as well as people with low incomes, experienced much higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death. 

Research has shown that several key factors worsened health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Crowded housing, dense neighborhoods, and location played a major role in how the virus spread. Systemic racism, discrimination, and unstable jobs made some communities even more at risk.

A new report, published in Health Expectations, highlights how the Share, Trust, Organize, Partner COVID-19 California Alliance, known as STOP COVID-19 CA, helped address these challenges. Formed in 2020 as part of the federal pandemic response, the network brought together 11 universities, including the University of California, Riverside, and more than 75 community organizations across 14 counties. Together, they focused on reaching communities most affected by COVID-19 and improving access to reliable information, testing, and vaccination, while laying the foundation for long-term health equity.

“Our evaluation looks at how a state-wide network helped strengthen partnerships between communities and researchers so they could work together to tackle health inequalities in underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ann Cheney, senior author of the report and a professor of social medicine, population, and public health in the UC Riverside School of Medicine. “What made this network different was its community-first approach. Local organizations and grassroots leaders didn’t just participate; they led.” 

From shaping research questions to collecting data and writing reports, community partners contributed at every step, helping ensure that the work stayed grounded in real-life community needs and socio-cultural and economic contexts, rather than being driven by academic theory alone.

Between August 2020 and December 2021, STOP COVID-19 CA surveyed more than 11,000 Californians, conducted dozens of focus groups, participated in clinical trials, and organized hundreds of events — from town halls to vaccination clinics. Community health workers, known as promotoras, helped design and deliver health information in ways that resonated with local culture and language.

Cheney explained that in 2024 the network used a participatory and community-based evaluation method called Ripple Effects Mapping to better understand the network’s impact. The method showed that the network not only improved COVID-19 response efforts, but also strengthened relationships between community and academic partners, improved communication, and built lasting skills for future collaboration.

“Our report also points to bigger lessons,” Cheney said. “While the network made significant progress, participants noted the need for broader changes, especially in how universities work with community groups and how funding is shared. Ultimately, STOP COVID-19 CA showed that when communities are respected as leaders and equal partners, the results are more effective and more lasting.” 

The report found the network helped communities not only respond to an emergency but also begin to reshape public health responses to better serve those most impacted by inequality. According to the report, STOP COVID-19 CA remains a model for how researchers and communities can work together to advance health equity. 

“By combining academic expertise with local knowledge and leadership, the network showed what is possible when collaboration is rooted in trust, respect, and shared purpose,” Cheney said. “Beyond helping with urgent needs like COVID-19 testing and vaccines, the network also laid the groundwork for lasting changes to support ongoing community involvement in health equity research. It stands as a model for how diverse communities — across cultures, languages, and regions — can come together with researchers to tackle health disparities.”

Cheney’s coauthors on the report are academic partners at UCR and UC San Diego, as well as community partners at Conchita Servicios de la Comunidad in Mecca, California, and Global Action Research Center in San Diego. 

The research was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

The title of the paper, led by first author Evelyn Vázquez who was formerly at UCR, is “Ripple Effects Mapping: Evaluating Multilevel Perspectives and Impacts of a State-Wide Community Academic Partnership Network on COVID-19 Health Disparities.”

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 26,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual impact of more than $2.7 billion on the U.S. economy. To learn more, visit www.ucr.edu.

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Journal

Health Expectations

DOI

10.1111/hex.70446 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Ripple Effects Mapping: Evaluating Multilevel Perspectives and Impacts of a Statewide Community–Academic Partnership Network on Covid-19 Health Disparities

 

Researchers deconstruct chikungunya outbreaks to improve prediction and vaccine development

University of Notre Dame

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image: 

An Aedes aegypti mosquito with red powder used to mark the animal in a behavior test.

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Credit: (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

The symptoms come on quickly — acute fever, followed by debilitating joint pain that can last for months. Though rarely fatal, the chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne illness, can be particularly severe for high-risk individuals, including newborns and older adults.

While the virus is common in tropical and subtropical regions, including Asia, Africa and South America, public health officials have been tracking reported infections in Europe and, in September, a confirmed case in Long Island, New York.

Outbreaks of chikungunya have prompted the Centers for Disease Control to issue health notices to travelers bound for Bangladesh; Cuba; Guangdong Province, China; Kenya; Madagascar; Somalia; and Sri Lanka.

In Guangdong Province, an “unprecedented” outbreak recently prompted government officials in China to mandate quarantines for anyone suspected of being infected by the virus, spraying individuals with mosquito repellent and spraying impacted buildings and other areas with insecticide.

In a new study, published in Science Advances, researchers at the University of Notre Dame analyzed more than 80 outbreaks of chikungunya virus to improve prediction of future outbreaks and inform vaccine trial development.

“Chikungunya outbreaks are unpredictable in both size and severity,” said Alex Perkins, the Ann and Daniel Monahan Collegiate Professor of infectious disease epidemiology in the Department of Biological Sciences, and co-author of the study. “You can have one outbreak that infects just a few people, and another in a similar setting that infects tens of thousands. That unpredictability is what makes public health planning — and vaccine development — so difficult.”

For the study, Alexander Meyer, a postdoctoral researcher in Perkins’ lab and lead author of the study, and a team of researchers reconstructed and analyzed 86 chikungunya outbreaks, creating the largest comparative dataset of its kind.

“Instead of looking at outbreaks in isolation, looking at many, all of which varied in size and severity, allowed us to search for patterns among them,” Meyer said.

Chikungunya was first identified in the 1950s. Outbreaks have become increasingly frequent and widespread, but they’re also sporadic and difficult to predict, posing a challenge to public health officials when it comes to planning for and preventing infections.

Changes in outbreaks of chikungunya, transmitted by bites from infected mosquitoes — Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus are the primary vectors — and other mosquito-borne illnesses are often considered in relation to climate change, as warmer, more humid conditions can promote mosquito activity.

But Perkins said this study showed that climate isn’t necessarily the most important factor when trying to predict the severity of an outbreak of disease caused by a virus like chikungunya.

“Climate factors like temperature and rainfall can tell us where outbreaks are possible, but this study shows that they don’t help very much in predicting how severe they will be,” he said. “Local conditions matter — things like housing quality, mosquito density and how communities respond. Some variation is simply due to chance. That randomness is part of the story, too.”

Currently, only two vaccines for chikungunya have received regulatory approval — but they are not widely available in regions where the virus is most common.

That is why having such a large, comprehensive dataset is so helpful when it comes to vaccine development, Perkins said.

To test for efficacy, vaccine makers need accurate predictions of where an outbreak might occur before it happens, to conduct trials and monitor whether candidate vaccines are effective.

The study demonstrates how a more comprehensive analysis of past outbreaks can help public health officials prepare for future outbreaks, thereby protecting vulnerable populations and aiding vaccine development.

Additional co-authors include Kathryn B. Anderson at the State University of New York, Natalie Dean at Emory University, and Sandra Mendoza Guerrero and Steven T. Stoddard at Bavarian Nordic Inc., which provided funding for the study. This work was additionally supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adt5419 

Article Title

Predictability of infectious disease outbreak severity: Chikungunya as a case study

Article Publication Date

3-Oct-2025

 

Research unearths origins of Ancient Egypt’s Karnak Temple

Most complete study of the temple complex and its landscape establishes earliest occupation and hints at link to creation myth

University of Southampton

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Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt.

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Credit: Dr Ben Pennington

Researchers have carried out the most comprehensive geoarchaeological survey of Egypt’s Karnak Temple near Luxor – one of the ancient world’s largest temple complexes and a UNESCO World Heritage site welcoming millions of tourists every year.

The study, published in Antiquity today [6 October] reveals new evidence on the age of the temple, tantalising links to ancient Egyptian mythology, and new insights about the interplay between the temple’s riverine landscape and the people who occupied and developed the site over its 3,000 years of use.

“This new research provides unprecedented detail on the evolution of Karnak Temple, from a small island to one of the defining institutions of Ancient Egypt,” says Dr Ben Pennington, lead author of the paper and a Visiting Fellow in Geoarchaeology at the University of Southampton.

Karnak temple is located 500 meters east of the present-day River Nile near Luxor, at the Ancient Egyptian religious capital of Thebes.

An international research team, led by Dr Angus Graham (Uppsala University) and involving several academics from the University of Southampton, analysed 61 sediment cores from within and around the temple site. The team also studied tens of thousands of ceramic fragments to help date their findings.

Using this evidence, researchers have been able to map out how the landscape around the site changed throughout its history.

They found that prior to about 2520 BCE, the site would have been unsuitable for permanent occupation due to being regularly flooded by fast-flowing water from the Nile. This means the earliest occupation at Karnak would have likely been during the Old Kingdom (c.2591–2152 BC). Ceramic fragments found at the site corroborate this finding, with the earliest dating from sometime between c.2305 to 1980 BC.

Dr Kristian Strutt, a co-author of the paper from the University of Southampton, said: “The age of Karnak Temple has been hotly contested in archaeological circles, but our new evidence places a temporal constraint on its earliest occupation and construction.”

The land on which Karnak was founded was formed when river channels cut into their beds to the west and east, creating an island of high ground in what is now the east/south-east of the temple precinct. This emerging island provided the foundation for occupation and early construction of Karnak temple.

Over subsequent centuries and millennia, the river channels either side of the site diverged further, creating more space for the temple complex to develop.

Researchers were surprised to find that the eastern channel – until this study not much more than a supposition – was more well-defined, and perhaps even larger than the channel to the west, which archaeologists had previously focussed on.

Dominic Barker, another co-author also from the University of Southampton added: “The river channels surrounding the site shaped how the temple could develop and where, with new construction taking place on top of old rivers as they silted up.”

 “We also see how Ancient Egyptians shaped the river itself, through the dumping of sands from the desert into channels, possibly to provide new land for building, for example.”

This new understanding of the temple’s landscape has striking similarities to an Ancient Egyptian creation myth, leading the team to believe that the decision to locate the temple here could have been linked to the religious views of its inhabitants.

Ancient Egyptian texts of the Old Kingdom say that the creator god manifested as high ground, emerging from ‘the lake’. The island upon which Karnak was found is the only known such area of high ground surrounded by water in the area.

“It’s tempting to suggest the Theban elites chose Karnak’s location for the dwelling place of a new form of the creator god, ‘Ra-Amun’, as it fitted the cosmogonical scene of high ground emerging from surrounding water,” says Dr Pennington.

“Later texts of the Middle Kingdom (c.1980–1760 BC) develop this idea, with the ‘primeval mound’ rising from the ‘Waters of Chaos’. During this period, the abating of the annual flood would have echoed this scene, with the mound on which Karnak was built appearing to ‘rise’ and grow from the receding floodwaters.”

With a concession to study the whole floodplain of the Luxor region, the team are now planning and carrying out work at other major sites in the area, to further understand the landscapes and waterscapes of the whole Ancient Egyptian religious capital zone.

The Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt) is published in Antiquity and is available online.

The work was supported by the Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse (KAW 2013.0163) and Uppsala Universitet (HUMSAM 2014/17), together with a small grant from M och S Wångstedts Stiftelse. The work was carried out under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society (London) with a permit from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt).

Ends

Core samples being extracted at Karnak Temple

Core samples being extracted at Karnak Temple.

Core samples being extracted at Karnak Temple.

Credit

Dr Ben Pennington

Notes for editors

1. The paper Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt) will be published in Antiquity. An advanced copy of the paper is available upon request.
2. For Interviews with Dr Ben Pennington please contact Steve Williams, Media Manager, University of Southampton press@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 3212.
3. Images available here: https://safesend.soton.ac.uk/pickup?claimID=2gAWwbjQzvZYges4&claimPasscode=m8RPSX9eZSyosdCZ

Additional information

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www.southampton.ac.uk/news/contact-press-team.page

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Journal

Antiquity

DOI

10.15184/aqy.2025.10185 

Article Title

Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt)

Article Publication Date

6-Oct-2025

COI Statement

The authors declare no competing interests. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the National Park Service or the government of the USA.