AdventHealth physician: COVID-19 impacting multicultural communities in Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. – Oct. 15, 2020 – In today’s AdventHealth Morning Briefing, Dr. Victor Herrera, associate chief medical officer at AdventHealth Orlando, discussed the effect COVID-19 has in some cultural communities in Central Florida.

“In areas where the population density is high, that contributes to the spread of the virus. There may also be some cultural issues, blood ties or genetic predispositions that could increase the transmission of COVID-19,” said Herrera, an infectious disease specialist.

Herrera emphasized the importance of multicultural participation in clinical trials as the world searches for COVID-19 vaccines during a global pandemic.

“You want to be able to test those therapies and those vaccines in the populations where you ultimately are going to use them,” Herrera said. “It’s very important to have participation so you can see if there are any things that are specific to those communities that participate in those trials, and adjust to that.”

As we begin flu season, Herrera encouraged all individuals to get flu shots to limit a potential “double whammy” with COVID-19 and the flu. “Flu vaccines do not prevent against COVID-19 – they are two different viruses – but if we can control the influenza, it will help tremendously as we continue to deal with COVID-19,” Herrera said.

Flu shots can be scheduled at CentraCare.org.

We encourage you to refer to the video on the Life at AdventHealth Central Florida page to pull direct quotes from Herrera. The video may be downloaded by following this link: https://vimeo.com/468236611#t=175s