Unmasking COVID-19: Pacific Islanders, Health Equity, and Survival in New Zealand and the United States

"Unmasking COVID-19" examines the disproportionate effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Pacific Islander communities in New Zealand and the United States. While both countries have adopted different approaches to managing the pandemic at a national level, Pacific Islanders in both nations have been diagnosed with and suffered the impact of COVID-19 in numbers disproportionate to their representation within the overall population. Thus, a closer investigation of the historical and structural factors shaping Pacific Islanders' health outcomes, the pandemic's role in exacerbating those factors, and local level organizations' role in mitigating the impact of these circumstances is needed. Our team will conduct interviews with leaders and members of Pacific Islander serving organizations in New Zealand and the United States that have actively sought to provide much-needed community assistance during the pandemic. These interviews will then be supplemented by interviews with physicians and local government officials. Drawing on this data we will: (1) co-author and publish a series of Op-Ed pieces in New Zealand and U.S. news outlets on COVID-19's disproportionate impact on Pacific Islander communities; (2) develop and publish a co-authored research paper on the importance of reconciling national and community-based narratives during the coronavirus pandemic; (3) build a website using the StoryMaps platform to showcase the virus's impact on individuals' everyday lives and highlighting the diverse array of community-based responses to managing the pandemic's effects; and (4) apply for external grant funding to include additional nations/overseas territories across the Pacific region.