Analyze

The family followed during most of the film was able to get several members out of Liberia during the Ebola crisis, I was under the impression that travel across the border of affected nations was prohibited. The CDC webpage was able to confirm that travel bans were imposed to and from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis. Travel to and from these places was only permitted for health officials and aid worked, and required a 21 day quarantine upon returning to the US. However, several cases in surrounding countries were reported and it is known that people would first travel to a different country before attempting to fly to the United States.

I was also interested in how health care workers and emergency responders kept themselves safe while working with such a dangerous virus, the CDC webpage was also able to clarify the PPE used when dealing with suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola, including gloves, gowns, respiratory protection and boots. Protocols also exist for training responders in the proper methods of donning and doffing PPE to protect themselves.

As a portion of the film focused on the public outrage concerning the quarantine, I read an article “Encouraging Compliance with Quarantine: A Proposal to Provide Job Security an Income Replacement” by Mark A. Rothstein which explains in greater detail the effectiveness but also challenges posed by a quarantine, and how this directly effects the infected and uninfected individuals inside.

This policy protects EMS and firefighters, a group not often considered a vulnerable population but often has to go into situations in which they are vulnerable to attack on very little information. The ability to defend themselves, although the policy specifically states that this is not an effort to stop sending police to medical and fire calls, can reduce the risk of responding to calls in areas that are known to be dangerous.

The author, Didier Fassin, is a French anthropologist and sociologist with training in medicine and public health. He has worked in the field of medical anthropology for decades through research and field experience. He currently works as a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. 

The system has partners including UNAIDS, a branch of UNISEF, International Medical Corps, Medecins Du Monde, AAHI, and other humanitarian organizations. The support of these groups both financially and with the user community is important to maintain the app as an active site for research and development. The technical aspects of the site also heavily rely on the data storage method, which is not mentioned but would require massive amounts of memory as well as safeguards to prevent data loss on the app servers.

Different sections of the policy applies to different groups, the first section focused on disaster preparedness which was directed at state and city governments. The subsequent sections apply to various organizations and government groups that would be working under an interagency task force in the case of an emergency, and the individuals that would be requesting aid or funding after a disaster.

The organization membership includes two subsets, first the organization membership includes any and all active serviceman, veterans, and limited membership for their families. The other portion of membership includes administrators, doctors, and public health workers who work to provide the services needed.

This article has been referenced extensively by articles dealing with both medicine and related policies as well as the nuclear sciences and politics. Some such articles include, “Glioblastoma in a former Chernobyl resident” and “The pharmaceuticalisation of security: Molecular biomedicine, antiviral stockpiles, and global health security”.

The article focuses on the inherent necessity for emergency response to include community education, risk assessment, and premade policies that designate decision making authority in the event of a disaster, while also acknowledging the inherent unpredictability of emergencies that require flexible response plans. Emphasis is placed on the need for rapid response, and the importance of safeguarding expertise through training and records. 

This article has not been references extensively, it appears to have been used in further research done by the author but I could not find other articles that referenced this one.

Data collected from a study done in Baltimore in the 1990’s, including statistics and observations is used to support the main argument. The methods used in Haiti and Rwanda as well as the results from implementing those methods are also used as examples for the claim that social conditions greatly impact disease susceptibility.