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June 12, 2020
COVID-19 ResponsePublic HealthPartnership for Healthy Cities

Follow the Data Podcast: How Helsinki, Finland is Responding to COVID-19

The statue of Arvo Kustaa Parkkila in Helsinki, Finland.

As cities continue to grapple with the public health challenges posed by COVID-19, it’s clear that there’s an enormous gap between the kinds of support national governments can provide and what local officials need.

In order to fill those gaps, The Partnership for Healthy Cities – which was created by Bloomberg Philanthropies to tackle noncommunicable diseases and injuries in 70 global cities – is stepping up to provide assistance for mayors responding to the virus.

Through our support and in partnership with the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies, The Partnership for Healthy Cities has launched a series of virtual convenings to give global mayors guidance on how to implement best-practice COVID-19 interventions while minimizing social and economic impacts.

These virtual convenings are a venue for an exchange of COVID-19 experiences and strategies among mayors.

To tell us more about this initiative, Mayor Jan Vapaavuori of Helsinki, Finland, joined Kelly Larson, who works on our public health team, two weeks ago to discuss how Helsinki is responding to COVID-19, how The Partnership for Healthy Cities is encouraging global collaboration between cities, and what’s keeping mayors hopeful right now.

You can listen to the podcast and past episodes in the following ways:

For more from our coronavirus series:

  • Michelle King, the co-creator of “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” Brooke Kennedy, executive producer of “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” actress Christine Baranski, actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Joseph Benincasa, President and CEO of The Actors Fund, joins Bloomberg Associates’ Katherine Oliver for “Lights, Camera…Action?”
  • Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown, Sierra Leone joins public health program lead Dr. Kelly Henning for “How Freetown, Sierra Leone is Responding to COVID-19.”
  • Bloomberg Associates Principal Rose Gill sits down with Steven Kobre, a Partner at Kobre + Kim, and Jerry DeLoach, the Head of the Cost Recovery team for the City of Atlanta, for “The Cost of Recovery for Our Cities, Part 2.”
  • Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University joins Dr. Jessica Leighton from our public health program to discuss “A Promising Treatment for COVID-19.”
  • Amanda McClelland, the Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics and Resolve to Save Lives at Vital Strategies sits down with Dr. Jennifer Ellis from our public health program to discuss “Slowing the Spread of COVID-19 in Africa.”
  • Adam Freed, a Principal at Bloomberg Associates, joins Natasha Rogers, the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Newark, and Brad Gair, a Principal with Witt O’Brien’s, for “The Cost of Recovery for Our Cities, Part 1.”
  • Janette Sadik-Khan, a Principal at Bloomberg Associates and Chair of NACTO, joins Corinne Kisner, Executive Director of NACTO, and Mark de la Vergne, the Chief of Mobility Innovation for the City of Innovation, on “The Intersection of COVID-19 and Transportation.”
  • “Behind the Scenes of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Map,” was borrowed from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health podcast, “Public Health on Call.”
  • Josh Sharfstein, the Vice Dean for Public Health Practice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, speaks with Dr. Jessica Leighton of our public health program on “Responding to a Pandemic Crisis.”
  • Megan Sheekey, who leads Strategic Partnerships at Bloomberg Associates, joins Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, for “How to Help Nonprofits Hit Hard by COVID-19.”
  • Tom Frieden, the President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and the former Director of the CDC, sits down with Dr. Kelly Henning, who leads the Public Health program at Bloomberg Philanthropies and the former Director of Epidemiology for the City of New York, for “World War C – Us Against the Microbe.”
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