Search

The article describes the situation in post-Katrina New Orleans as one where trauma is constantly happening and more work is going into emergency response than recovery. Instead of construction workers, social workers and the like, the military was sent by the government for aid after Katrina. 

The main findings in this article is the phenomenon of "biological citizenship" that occurred in the Ukraine after the Chernobyl disaster, how "scientific cooperation and political management" developed, and how sociopolitical factors affect the course of health and disease in a country. 

The parts of the film that I found most persuasive and compelling were Atul Gawande's personal experience. As both a surgeon and son, he has the unique viewpoint of being the one to be the bearer of bad news and be the one to accept his father's mortality as his cancer progressed. Gawande gives rational and emotional parts of end-of-life care, and is able to learn new ways of handling mortality as a healthcare provider and a human. 

Dr. Schmid used a variety of sources and methods to produce her report. She pulled a lot of information from other essays, whether they be directly relating to the Fukushima incident or nuclear safety and preparedness in general. She also conducted communication with a number of other researchers and experts in the field. Additionally, she pulled a great deal from IAEA documents and US NRC publications.

Emergency response isn't addressed in the report at all. The only area that could be claimed to be touched on is access to emergency prophylaxis for HIV by those in poor areas.

This article seemed like an introduction to a book and didn't really present any susbstative arguments. It mostly talked about how large organizations like WHO function and what some of their protocols are. It also discussed how infections and diseases can spread differently in the current era versus how they used to be spread.

The article notes the U.N.'s role in the cholera epidemic that killed thousands of Haitians and government and societal factors that lead to Haiti's lack of major improvement after the earthquake. Another public health issue that was mentioned was, "the only part of the Haitian government that receives direct funding from the U.S. government, the Health Ministry, has racked up impressive post-earthquake gains in childhood vaccination rates and access to lifesaving HIV treatment". 

MSF relies upon what ever technology and infrastructure they can afford to send to a certain area. Becuase they avoid using facilities that the host country has, they are able to establish their own infrastructure in an area. Additionally, certain areas may be greatly helped by some types of medical technology while others aren't. They rely upon doctors being able to make due in difficult environments as well.

The report addresses how strained public health infrastructures can get in the face of large scale epidemics like in the ebola outbreak. It analyzes the responses of local government, health care workers, and MSF in the ebola outbreak, discussing what could have been done to prevent the spread and severity of the disease.