Throughout history, Black and Brown communities have faced ongoing injustice. The COVID-19 pandemic made this even more evident. During this time, communities of color faced a lack of resources to deal with the virus, many tragically reporting high infection and death rates.
At Thermo Fisher Scientific, we quickly reached out to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) struggling to cope with the pressures of the pandemic. To help address these disparities we launched the Just Project — a humanitarian response to this global crisis - named after Dr. Ernest Just, a globally recognized Black scientist. As part of this initiative, we pledged time and resources to help protect the health HBCU staff and students. This has helped them safely reopen their campuses, allowing students to continue their education.
Despite operating virtually, all colleges and universities were suffering from the impact of the pandemic. As schools started to re-open, institutions required additional resources to welcome students back safely.
Unfortunately, HBCUs didn’t receive the same resources as other institutions. That’s why we initiated efforts to help HBCUs reopen safely and enable people from these communities to continue their higher education.
At Thermo Fisher, we are always looking for opportunities to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. As the Just Project allowed students to safely continue to their education, our priority expanded to ensuring they were also set up for health and success post-graduation.
Newly launched health equity initiatives, including variant sequencing, help us stay one step ahead of the disease. And as we further engage in conversations with fellow experts in the field, we are joined by our HBCU partners so together we can learn and collaborate on the actions needed to strengthen equity in science and healthcare.
¹ Published: Feb 22, 2022. (2022, February 22). Covid-19 cases and deaths by Race/ethnicity: Current data and changes over time. KFF. Retrieved June 23, 2022