The Henry Schein Cares Foundation, in partnership with the UPS Foundation, launched "Wearing Is Caring," a public health awareness campaign focused on fair access to health among underserved communities, as well as helping reduce the spread of COVID-19 in hot spots by promoting the need for social distancing and the importance of wearing face coverings.
Dr. Louis Sullivan, co-chairman of the Henry Schein Cares Foundation, and Jenifer Kim Field, Vice President of Global Social Responsibility, discuss the Wearing Is Caring campaign.
With COVID-19, we are facing the most serious public health challenge of the last 100 years, and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that the SARS-CoV-2 infection is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, declared that one of the most important mitigation efforts is wearing a mask.¹ Public health measures, like this campaign, are helpful and effective in driving awareness and action that can reduce health risks and save lives.
The underserved, in addition to communities of color, have been greatly affected by the pandemic², and the campaign is designed to also shine a light on the needs of these vulnerable communities.
The campaign—which follows guidance from the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) that encourages the use of cotton or cloth face coverings in public spaces to reduce community spread—aligns with other global and local efforts to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including the World Economic Forum's COVID Action Platform.