Book Launch: Inoculating Cities Volume II

Please join us for a discussion on Inoculating Cities Volume II with Editors Matthew Boyce & Rebecca Katz

About the Book

Inoculating Cities: Case Studies of the Urban Response to 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 varied contexts (i.e., socioeconomic, demographic, legal, and governance) and intentionally documenting the varied experiences in these different contexts—and the strategies used to respond to the pandemic—can guide decision-makers as they prepare for and respond to future infectious disease outbreaks.

This volume highlights several innovative approaches used throughout the pandemic as described by the people who designed and implemented pandemic response efforts in their cities. Additionally, it identifies models that can be adopted in the future by local authorities and municipal leaders around the world.

Key features

• 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

About the Editors

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 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.

Additional Speaker

Dr. Letitia Dzirasa is the Deputy Mayor of Equity, Health, and Human Services for Baltimore City. Before moving to the Mayor's Office, she served as the first African American female Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore from 2019 -2023, leading the City through the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in Baltimore City faring better than most comparable jurisdictions in terms of incidence rate (81st percentile), mortality rate (73rd percentile), case fatality rate (56th percentile), and vaccinations in population over the age of 12 (90th percentile) from January 2020 through June 2021. Dr. Dzirasa is a pediatrician, wife, mother, and life-long advocate for equitable access to healthcare for all.