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Follow the Data Podcast: The Data Behind The Pandemic

Cities and states are reopening even as coronavirus cases are surging in the United States – and public health professionals are more reliant on data than ever to drive decision making and save lives.

As the Director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Tom Inglesby and his team use research, data, and expert analysis to advise decision makers about public health practices to mitigate the effects of epidemics and disasters.

In this episode, Dr. Inglesby sat down with Bloomberg Philanthropies public health program lead Dr. Kelly Henning to tell us more about how states are looking at data to inform school and office reopenings, whether we’re in the first or second wave of COVID-19, and the power of social media during the pandemic.

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

For more from our coronavirus series:

  • On “Food First Responders,” World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook joined Bloomberg Philanthropies Senior Advisor Brynne Craig for a conversation about how re-opening is shifting World Central Kitchen’s work. 
  • On “Lights, Camera…Action?” 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, joined Bloomberg Associates Principal Katherine Oliver to discuss how we can keep casts and crews safe during the pandemic.
  • Rose Gill, a Principal at Bloomberg Associates, joined Steven Kobre, a Partner at Kobre + Kim, and Jerry DeLoach, the Head of the Cost Recovery team for the City of Atlanta, to discuss how cities can maximize federal reimbursements and recovery aid in the wake of COVID-19 on “The Cost of Recovery for Our Cities, Part 2.” 
  • Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University joined and Dr. Jessica Leighton from our public health program to tell us more about how donating blood plasma could help your community on “A Promising Treatment for COVID-19.” 
  • Amanda McClelland, the Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics and Resolve to Save Lives at Vital Strategies, sat down with Dr. Jennifer Ellis of our public health program to discuss why it’s important to prioritize slowing the spread of low- and middle-income countries on “Slowing the Spread of COVID-19 in Africa.”
  • On “The Cost of Recovery for Our Cities, Part 1,” Natasha Rogers, the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Newark, and Brad Gair, a Principal with Witt O’Brien’s, joined Bloomberg Associates Principal Adam Freed for a conversation around how cities can engage with and get support from states and the federal government. 
  • Corinne Kisner, Executive Director of NACTO, and Mark de la Vergne, the Chief of Mobility Innovation for the City of Detroit, sat down with Janette Sadik-Khan, a Principal at Bloomberg Associates and Chair of NACTO, to discuss how cities can provide safer, healthier transportation options on “The Intersection of COVID-19 and Transportation.” 
  • Behind the Scenes of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Map” was borrowed from “Public Health on Call,” a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Beth Blauer of the Centers for Civic Impact at Johns Hopkins joined Dr. Josh Sharfstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to share how the global COVID-19 tracking dashboard was created.
  • Josh Sharfstein also appeared on “Responding to a Pandemic Crisis” with Dr. Jessica Leighton of our public health program to tell us more about how the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is tackling the coronavirus from every angle.
  • Megan Sheekey, who leads Strategic Partnerships at Bloomberg Associates, interviewed Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation – one of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ co-funders in the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund – to discuss how the pandemic is affecting social service and cultural organizations on “How to Help Nonprofits Hit Hard by COVID-19.”   
  • Kelly Henning, the public health program lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies and the former Director of Epidemiology for the City of New York, interviewed Dr. Tom Frieden, the President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and the former director of the CDC, for the first episode of our COVID-19 series, “World War C’ – Us Against the Microbe.”
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