# A tale of two cities: London and New York City during Covid-19

## TL;DR

This paper compares how the spread of COVID-19 varied in London and New York City, linking neighborhood demographics and policies to infection rates.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is comparing two cities with different surveillance and policy approaches to improve health policy coordination.

## Key findings

- Neighborhood demographics are linked to varying rates of COVID-19 incidence in both cities.
- Policy responses and surveillance differences between London and New York provide insights into effective pandemic management.
- Improved coordination between cities can lead to better health outcomes during pandemics.

## Abstract

Using publicly available data, this paper investigates the diffusion of COVID-19 across neighborhoods in two major cities, London and New York. We link neighborhood demographics to incidence, and we investigate patterns of change over time in conjunction with changing policy responses to the pandemic. By comparing and contrasting these two cities, we are able to exploit surveillance and policy differences, demonstrating how each contributes information to the other. We conclude that better coordination can be translated into improved health policy.