Responding Globally, Nationally, and Locally to COVID-19
Beginning in early 2020, as COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched several response efforts focused on saving lives, stopping the spread of the virus, and mitigating its devastating economic and social harm. These efforts, which involved adapting current programs and creating new ones, have built on Bloomberg Philanthropies' existing partnerships and expertise.
Global
Reinforcing Public Health Systems in African and Low- and Middle-Income Countries Around the World
Low- and middle-income countries, many with underfunded public health systems, are especially vulnerable to pandemics like COVID-19. Bloomberg Philanthropies provided immediate support of $40 million to help many of these countries together with two long- term partners: the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies' Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative run by former CDC Director Tom Frieden. Their rapid-response efforts provided critical protective equipment, training, and funding.
Bloomberg Philanthropies joined the international community to support the World Health Organization as it bought and shipped personal protective equipment to 135 countries, supplied 1.5 million diagnostic kits to 129 countries, and released 90+ technical guidance documents.
Vital Strategies' efforts are focused on 35 countries in Africa, providing rapid-response funds for governments to hire staff and buy equipment; training frontline health care workers on infection prevention and control; supporting governments' risk communications and community engagement efforts; and more.
For example, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Vital Strategies helped Nigeria train lab scientists, create a national strategic plan for labs, develop contact tracing guidelines, and draft guidance on implementing social distancing measures.
In Sierra Leone, which experienced a spike in cases in early June, Bloomberg Philanthropies supported training for approximately 400 frontline health care workers from seven hospitals. These sessions covered topics such as identifying potential cases, protecting health care workers and preventing transmission between patients, and communicating effectively about the risks of COVID-19.
Supporting Vulnerable Refugee Populations
Refugees, who often live in densely populated conditions where social distancing and proper hygiene can be difficult, are also particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. As part of Mike Bloomberg's long-standing support of the International Rescue Committee, Bloomberg Philanthropies contributed $10 million to support the organization and the 25 million refugees and migrants it serves across 40 countries. The funds provided infection control training, new telemedicine services, and upgraded health facilities.
National
Supporting Response and Recovery: The COVID-19 Local Response Initiative
Through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies provides leadership training and management tools to help mayors and other local leaders address their cities' most pressing challenges. When COVID-19 emerged as an unprecedented global challenge, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, along with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, began hosting virtual Grand Rapids, Michigan Helping small businesses adapt convenings to support mayors around the world. These convenings provide mayors and city leaders access to the most up-to-date public health information and expert coaching on a range of challenges, from effective communications to how to encourage mask usage. City officials also heard from prominent leaders from different fields, including the newly elected U.S. president and three of his predecessors.
Beyond these sessions, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg Associates have provided guidance, online tools, a daily email of COVID-19 response and recovery resources, and technical assistance to help city governments address the operational and economic challenges presented by the pandemic, including: navigating federal funding streams and maximizing reimbursements; addressing COVID-19–related transportation challenges; providing resources to cities to help address homelessness; and prioritizing and implementing programs to support local economic recovery.
Local
Supporting Communities in New York and London
Financial losses, coupled with a need for protective equipment and technology to enable working in person or remotely, left many social service and cultural organizations at risk of shutting down. Bloomberg Philanthropies helped establish three separate funds to assist these critical sources of care, culture, and creativity in New York and London:
These funds have distributed grants to more than 2,000 nonprofit social service and cultural organizations and over 100 for-profit cultural venues and organizations at risk of closing due to the pandemic, including small music venues, independent cinemas, and LGBTQ+ venues.
The NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund, launched together with a group of foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and The New York Community Trust, raised more than $110 million from more than 1,300 donors to distribute more than 800 grants and no-interest loans to small and mid-sized organizations throughout New York City.
Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies partnered with London Mayor Sadiq Khan to support the launch of two COVID-19 emergency response funds: the nearly £42 million London Community Response Fund and the £2.3 million Culture at Risk Business Support Fund.
As the pandemic limited options for safe outdoor activity during the summer, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Ford Foundation, and The JPB Foundation provided a $1.2 million grant to support The Fresh Air Fund's Summer Spaces and Youth Employment programs in New York City. Summer Spaces provided 26,000 children from low-income communities across the city with safe, supervised recreational activity and employed more than 200 young adults as activity specialists, coaches, and counselors.
Together with global partners, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P. also contributed nearly three and a half million meals to COVID-19 frontline workers and communities in need. Bloomberg Philanthropies partnered with World Central Kitchen to serve more than one million of those meals to more than 30,000 NYC Health + Hospitals employees, supporting their extraordinary efforts on the front lines of the pandemic in New York City. This effort also helped put back to work 400 food service employees across the city. Bloomberg L.P. provided nearly two and a half million meals to over 150 nonprofit partners and food banks in nearly 100 cities around the world, including by working with existing food vendors and nonprofit partners to distribute meals and food from the company's pantries in 18 cities, such as Dubai, London, New York, Princeton, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
The pandemic — and the resulting shift to remote learning — also increased the likelihood that low-income students would not graduate from high school or would abandon plans to attend college in the fall. Funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies allowed College Bridge, a partnership between the New York City Department of Education and The City University of New York (CUNY), to make their program available to all 2020 graduating seniors from New York City public high schools. Ultimately, the program supported nearly 40,000 students from 315 schools in their successful transition from high school to college. Bloomberg L.P. also moved its mentoring programs online, so that employees could continue to advise students globally.
Reducing the Rate of COVID-19 Infections Through Contact Tracing
In late April, at the request of Governor Andrew Cuomo, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Vital Strategies' Resolve to Save Lives partnered with the New York State Department of Health to launch an unprecedented, large-scale contact tracing program to help reduce the infection rate of COVID-19 and support safe reopening across the state.
As part of this effort, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health designed and disseminated the training for the New York State contact tracing program. This online training is also available for free to the public. More than one million people have enrolled in the introductory course.
Bloomberg Philanthropies and its partners are providing guidance to several other states and cities implementing their
own contact tracing programs, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Detroit, Michigan.
Investing in COVID-19 Treatment Research
As doctors, public health officials, and other medical experts learn more about COVID-19, Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding two promising medical research studies.
Building on years of deep commitment to Johns Hopkins University and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Bloomberg Philanthropies committed $3 million to support Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Dr. Arturo Casadevall's research into the use of plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is also supporting NYU Langone Health's research into the connection between COVID-19, autoimmune diseases, and common medications used to treat autoimmune diseases.
Ensuring Safer, Longer, Healthier Lives
For decades, the Public Health program has combated noncommunicable diseases and injuries and shared solutions proven to save lives. By following the data and forming partnerships with both national and local governments and organizations around the world, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies works to reduce preventable deaths from tobacco use, obesity, road traffic crashes, and other leading causes. Bloomberg Philanthropies' longtime partners in protecting global public health proved to be natural allies in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mobilizing Cities to Take Action to Save Lives
Partnership for Healthy Cities
Through his role as World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, Mike Bloomberg launched the Partnership for Healthy Cities in 2017. Membership has since expanded to nearly 70 cities representing more than 300 million people.
Each year, 45 million people die from preventable causes such as injuries, as well as from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that also worsen the outcomes of COVID-19. Each Partnership city has agreed to implement at least one proven policy to fight NCDs and injuries. For example, Accra, Ghana, redesigned one of its most dangerous intersections to improve pedestrian safety, and Quito, Ecuador, implemented a nutrition program to provide healthier meal options to 13,000 schoolchildren.
In 2020, the Partnership for Healthy Cities quickly pivoted and expanded its work, responding to member cities' needs as they mobilized to combat COVID-19.
COVID-19 Response Spotlight: Partnership for Healthy Cities Expands Focus
The Partnership for Healthy Cities moved quickly to expand beyond its original focus and support cities around the world
with their COVID-19 responses. The initiative has provided more than $2 million in mini-grants to more than 50 cities, funding communications campaigns on hand washing and social distancing, the development of surveillance systems to track COVID-19 cases and related data, and surveys to understand public perceptions of COVID-19. For example, in São Paulo, Brazil, Bloomberg Philanthropies enabled the city to send three separate text messages to approximately one million residents as part of a campaign encouraging adherence to social distancing and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus. In Yangon, Myanmar, the Partnership for Healthy Cities helped the city launch a social media campaign reaching 3.5 million people. In October 2020, the initiative virtually brought together 1,000 participants from 110 countries to share lessons from cities' COVID-19 responses.
Leading Through Crisis: Reducing the Impact of COVID-19 in Latin America and Africa
In collaboration with the Partnership for Healthy Cities, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative hosted a six-part virtual learning series featuring Harvard faculty and leading public health experts to provide mayors in Latin America and Africa with science- based guidance, crisis leadership tools, and resources to combat the devastating health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic.
Investing $1 Billion in Tobacco Control to Save 35 Million Lives and Counting
Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use
Amid a pandemic from a disease that attacks the lungs, people with underlying health issues who smoke tobacco or use e-cigarettes may be at increased risk for serious complications.
One in ten deaths around the world is already caused by tobacco use. If left unchecked, tobacco is expected to claim one billion lives this century. Bloomberg Philanthropies has invested more than $1 billion in tobacco control over the past decade. Efforts have centered on working with national and local governments to enact a package of policies that are proven to reduce tobacco use and save lives, such as package warnings that explain health risks and taxes on tobacco products. This work now spans more than 110 countries and focuses on the world's largest smoking populations, including in China, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
These efforts are helping make progress around the world. The number of cigarettes sold globally peaked in 2012 and has been declining ever since. The most recent data show a 1.5 percent decline in global sales in 2019 compared with 2018. In 2019 and 2020, 16 Chinese cities and one province enacted 100 percent smoke-free laws, increasing the total to 29 such Chinese cities covering over 170 million people. Today, 65 percent of the world's population is protected by at least one comprehensive tobacco control measure, up from 15 percent when the Bloomberg Initiative began in 2007.