Session I: Situational Briefing: A Public Health Focus on Racism, Protests, and COVID-19 Prevention

Overview

In the first session, Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 within the United States. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, discussed racism and protests in the context of COVID-19, offering mayors recommendations on measures to consider to reduce exposure of COVID-19 during protests. Professor Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, addressed the mayors on how the global pandemic, economic recession, and renewed focus on racial justice provided city leaders with an opportunity to reinvent public governance. Harvard Kennedy School Professor Jorrit de Jong, and Harvard Business School Professor Rawi Abdelal, the Faculty Co-chairs of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, moderated the session.