Inoculating Cities: Case Studies of the Urban Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Inoculating Cities: Case Studies of the Urban Response of the COVID-19 Pandemic uses detailed case studies to document and describe how cities located in high, middle and low-income countries responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. City governments and municipal authorities exist and operate in extremely varied contexts (i.e., socioeconomic, demographic, legal and governance, etc.) and intentionally documenting the experiences in these different contexts provides guidance to decision-makers for future preparedness and response activities.

This volume highlights the innovative solutions throughout the pandemic as described by the people who designed and implemented pandemic response efforts in their cities. In addition, it identifies successful models that can be adopted in the future by city leaders around the world.

• Includes a holistic set of pandemic response considerations, such as contact tracing, quarantine and isolation, surging public health and medical workforces, risk communication, the provision testing and vaccination services, and reaching vulnerable populations
• A global scope that describes various approaches used by cities around the world in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Presents best practices on pandemic response that all can learn from

Dr. Rebecca Katz is a professor and the director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University. She has more than two decades of public health research experience, much of which has focused on global health security, public health preparedness, and health diplomacy. She has written on the urban governance of disease, the flow of infectious disease risk into and between urban areas and worked with municipal authorities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matthew R. Boyce is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Global Health Science and Security. He serves as the head research associate for the Center’s work on urban pandemic preparedness, has advocated for improving health security and public health preparedness in urban environments, and worked with municipal authorities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to support the local response to the outbreak.