New study finds community activists in Brazil’s favelas play a critical role in combatting COVID-19

A study co-led by Vanderbilt University’s Dominique Béhague found that Brazilian citizens without traditional public health expertise have stepped up and worked together in poor neighborhoods known as favelas to make significant strides in their community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Béhague, associate professor of medicine, health, and society, and Francisco Ortega, research professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Barcelona, Spain, co-authored a recent article in The Lancet about their findings.