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There are two authors Andrew Lakoff and Stephen Collier. Andrew Lakoff works at USC and has roughly 40 publications. He is a professor of anthropology, sociology and communication at USC and has written many works with Stephen Collier. Collier has about 36 publications, and is a professor of international affairs at The New School. They are not directly involved in emergency response research but they do a lot of international studies related to medicine and disaster.

" At just the moment when it seemed that infectious disease was about to be conquered, and that the critical health problems of the industrialized world now involved chronic disease and diseases of lifestyle, experts warned, we were witnessing a “return of the microbe.”"

" The aim of such techniques is not to manage known disease but to address vulnerabilities in health infrastructure by, for example, strengthening hospital surge capacity, stockpiling drugs, exercising response protocols, and vaccinating first responders. Approaches based on preparedness may not be guided by rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Rather, they are aimed at developing the capability to respond to various types of potentially catastrophic biological events."

"Security — the freedom from fear or risk — always suggests an absolute demand; security has, as Foucault wrote, no principle of limitation. There is no such thing as being “too secure.”51 Living with risk, by contrast, acknowledges a more complex calculus. It requires new forms of political and ethical reasoning that take into account questions that are often only implicit in discussions of biosecurity interventions."

The topic of biosecurity comes up a lot in this article. The prevalence of this threat is greatly discussed as well as the importance of preparedness. Global health and emergency response efforts are also greatly discussed. Citing emerging diseases as one of the major threats to global security. Public threat response is an aspect that is also widely discussed in this paper as well. Adaptations and improvements in responses are necessary due to new science and technologies that have and are developing. Overall, biosecurity needs to be addressed and threat response improved. 

Lakoff has a PhD in social anthropology and is an associate professor of sociology at the Univeristy of Southern California. Collier in an associate professor of international affairs at the New School in New York. Both authors have extensive backgrounds in studying people, but not disease, so their stance in this paper is not looking at the biological or emergency response aspects, but more how people plan and react to such.

1. "as Richard Danzig has argued in the case of bioterrorism, despite the striking increase in funding for biodefense in the U.S., there is still no 'common conceptual framework' that might bring various efforts together and make it possible to assess their adequacy."

2. “Who should lead the fight against disease? Who should pay for it? And what are the best strategies and tactics to adopt?”

3. In contrast to classic public health, preparedness does not draw on statistical records of past events. Rather, it employs imaginative techniques of enactment such as scenarios, exercises, and analytical models to simulate uncertain future threats.

4. emergency response is acute, short-term, focused on alleviating what is conceived as a temporally circumscribed event; whereas “social” interventions—such as those associated with development policy—focus on transforming political-economic structures over the long term

There are many citations, but the reference pages are not included, so it is not known what exactly the citations are, perhaps research papers or studies.

Many examples of responses to outbreaks are studied, and how regualtions stemmed from each outbreak, whether in animals, food industry, or vaccinations.

The arguments are supported by citing many studies and past experiences of organizations such as WHO and CDC. Based off the examination of current protocols of biosecurity interventions, it has been deduced that the process is still in formation and not completely settled. There are not "stable" or "clearly defined" understandings or strategies of possible interventions cited by WHO and CDC. This proving the point that there are clear actions that need to be made in terms of protocol development today.The AIDS crisis in the 80s was also used a supporting point for the argument in terms of response to emerging infectious diseases. The main focus of this was the alarm that was caused by science reports, journalists and novelists during that time. The effects this response had can be used today in the possible reformation of threat response now. The policy changes that have been seen in terms of public health and threat safety  were adequately researched and discussed in this paper. Showing the need for a changing system that adapts with time and needs globally.

Most of the claims are based on past examples in history of response to disease outbreaks and the development of new diseases. They looked at how regualtions were developed after each one, what research showed in each case, and how people reacted to the risk or security associated with each.

"The demand for “public health preparedness” escalated as public health insti- tutions faced mounting concerns about, first, a possible bioterrorist attack and then, beginning in 2005, a devastating influenza pandemic. "

"There is the problem of regulation and responsibility: given the global scale of biological threats and their multiple sources, it is often unclear who has regulatory jurisdiction or responsibility for managing a 

given disease event.  "

"The emergency management approach thus seeks to develop techniques for managing health emergencies that can work independently of political context and of socioeconomic conditions.  "

Past policies and global events are used to produce the arguments in this paper. The infrastructure set forth by the WHO and CDC in terms of biosecurity and protocols are cited repeatedly. The response to major historical outbreaks are the main details that are used in the paper in order to communicate the main points. Smallpox, flu and AIDS outbreaks are all noted as events we can learn from today in terms of threat response.