Associate Director of EndingCOVID, Sejal Sekhar, recently started an internal initiative called Pets4Purpose to raise money for underserved communities by repurposing gently used t-shirts into dog toys. These dog toys are then "purchased" in exchange for donations that directly benefits our community partners.
On August 2nd , EndingCOVID raised supplies to donate to the ESOL Bilingual Migrant Program. The goal of the drive was to collect school supplies that refugee and immigrant students can use when they seek shelter in St. Louis. It is often forgotten that for refugees and immigrants who come to St. Louis, school can start at any time.
The Delta variant has been found to be more infectious and have a higher transmission rate in comparison to other variants. It has also been found that the severity of the illness in unvaccinated individuals is greater and more dangerous. 'Hyperlocal outbreaks' are also a subject of concern for scientists. These occur when unvaccinated areas are adjacent to or surrounded by highly vaccinated areas which leads to the virus localizing itself and potentially having much more devastating effects on those unvaccinated communities. While vaccines are not 100% effective at preventing infection, they still provide significant protection, along with other recommended practices by the CDC including wearing masks in indoor settings and social distancing. Stay safe!
An investigational vaccine, mRNA-1273, designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults, according to interim results published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine. The ongoing Phase 1 trial is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The experimental vaccine is being co-developed by researchers at NIAID and at Moderna, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Manufactured by Moderna, mRNA-1273 is designed to induce neutralizing antibodies directed at a portion of the coronavirus “spike” protein, which the virus uses to bind to and enter human cells.
EndingCOVID.org is a nonprofit initiative nested within TejHospitality, a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization focused on local asset-based community development in the Greater St. Louis Area.