The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about social and structural factors related to health
disparities, including those related to HIV. The Lens tool is a partial response to an urgent need to
understand whether elevated risk of COVID-19 disease and mortality among persons living with
HIV (PLWH) results from related risk behaviors, a higher burden of comorbidities, and/or social
determinants of health. This tool can help decision-makers, community-based organizations and
other stakeholders to access critical neighborhood-level information about the intersection of
socio-economic and health vulnerabilities and HIV. The Lens portal also contains information on
COVID-19 case rates for counties where such information is available. We hope this information helps
guide overstretched public health and health systems in recasting, prioritizing, and improving HIV
prevention and treatment services in this tragic pandemic era.
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