What exactly is the CDC going to do with my blood? The New Georgia Project (NGP), The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), The Georgia NAACP, The Center for Popular Democracy and The SNCC Legacy Project will answer these questions and more during their town hall, "Filling the Gap: COVID-19, The CDC Antibody Survey, and The Black Community.”

Join these organizations, public officials and thought leaders in public health as we take a look into the impact of the CDC’s COVID-19 Antibody Survey and other public health issues within the Black community.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED:

This virtual gathering is in response to CDC deploying staffers in the two largest, predominantly Black counties in Georgia. They went door-to-door asking residents to voluntarily hand over samples of their blood. This COVID-19 Antibody Testing Survey was a partnership between the Georgia Department of Public Health and the CDC.

Now, it's time to get answers to the influx of calls expressing concerns about why they were being approached by teams wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including face shields, requesting to draw their blood. The Black community had not received any prior information about the survey, the purposes of the survey, and they wanted to know why. Some of their questions include:

• Why was my community specifically targeted for this testing?

• What exactly is antibody testing?

• How will the results specifically benefit me or my community?

CONFIRMED PANELISTS:

• Dr. Joe Bresee, CDC COVID-19 Deputy Incident Manager

• Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former Public Health professor, Columbia University Epidemiology Department

• Dr. Lynn Paxton, Fulton County Department of Health

• Dr. David Satcher, Morehouse School of Medicine / former U.S. Surgeon General

• Mr. Martin Luther King, III, community and civil rights advocate