2nd General Meeting – Public Meeting Minutes

Overview

CSUEB Pre-Med APAMSA held its second General Meeting on Tuesday, October 5th, 2021, at 7 PM (Pacific) via Zoom. The following Student Governance Team Members were in attendance:

• Lester Andrew Uy
  Chapter Founder & President

• Keshlee Roy
  Advocacy and Diversity Co-Director

• Astrid Suen, MMedSc
  Advocacy and Diversity Co-Director

• Elizabeth Cho
  Health Affairs Co-Director

• Kelly Ouyang
  Health Affairs Co-Director

The following guests were in attendance:

• Donna Tran
  National APAMSA President
  Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine (MS3)

• Brandon Yan
  Region VIII Director
  University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine (MS3)

Please note that no audiovisual recording is available as members shared sensitive personal details during certain segments of the General Meeting.

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Meeting Agenda

At the meeting, we discussed the following topics:

Speaker Presentation

• Brandon Yan shared his main findings from his publication, Death Toll of COVID-19 Asian Americans: Disparities Revealed.

• He focused on the following:

  • Higher case fatality rate (CFR) among Asian Americans when compared to other racial groups;

  • The possibility of COVID-19 under-testing as a contributor to higher CFR;

  • Delayed presentation by Asian Americans to hospitals and other healthcare facilities;

  • Hesitancy due to the effects of racism on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; and,

  • Other factors, such as household income, behavior, language barriers, as possible contributors.

• He then fielded a Question and Answer section regarding the publication.

Advocacy & Diversity —
How Racism Affects Health Equity

• Keshlee Roy and Astrid Suen, MMedSc, provided a primer on the definition of racism and its impact on society to reinforce the preceding Speaker Presentation.

• They further explored what groups actually comprise the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) categorization.

• Lastly, they detailed, at a high level, how racism affects health equity and why there are health inequities in the first place.

Health Affairs —
The Impact of COVID-19 on AAPI Communities: A Vaccination Perspective

• Elizabeth Cho and Kelly Ouyang opened by asking the audience: “How has COVID-19 impacted you?”.

• Afterward, they discussed and compared current Asian American vaccination rates against other race/ethnic groups within the United States. They then progressed the narrative to why vaccine hesitancy exists in certain AAPI communities.

• Lastly, they provided the audience with action items that they could to help address the issue.

An article of the presentation may be found here.

Feedback Survey & Announcements

• Kelly Ouyang distributed feedback surveys to the audience to solicit feedback and ways to improve APAMSA for the broader community.

• Lester Andrew Uy shared upcoming events for the remainder of the academic term, except for Culture Night of which Kelly Ouyang shared:

  • National Big/Lil Pairing Program
    The National deadline has been extended. It is now accepting applications until Friday, October 29, 11:59 PM (Pacific).

  • Region VIII Conference: (Re)Connecting
    Sat, October 23, 2021
    8:30 AM - 3:30 PM (Pacific)

  • 1st Annual Culture Night
    Fri, Nov 12, 2021
    7:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Pacific)

  • 15th Annual National Hepatitis Conference
    Sat, November 13, 2021
    9:00 AM-3:30 PM PST

Specific event details are linked above.

Dismissal and Informal Q&As

• Lester Andrew Uy concluded the General Meeting and opened Informal Q&As to the audience.

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