Session VI: Situational Briefing and COVID-19 in the Post-truth Era

Overview

Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, and former Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provided a situational briefing on the COVID-19 vaccine and discussed key actions city leaders can take to prepare for a vaccine campaign in their cities. Christopher Robichaud, Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Director of Pedagogical Innovation at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, led a session on the post-truth moment: echo chambers, truth decay, and information disorders, and offered strategies to combat disinformation. Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School Professor and Faculty Co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and Jennifer Musisi, the former executive director of Kampala, Uganda, and City Leader in Residence at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, moderated the session.