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As a researcher, I’m interested in the political, ecological, and cultural debates around mosquito-borne diseases and the solutions proposed to mitigate them.

When we received the task, my first impulse was to investigate about the contemporary effects of anthropogenic climate change in mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans. But I was afraid to make the same mistake that I did in my PhD research. I wrote my PhD proposal while based in the US, more specifically in New England, during the Zika epidemic, and proposed to understand how scientists were studying ecological climate change and mosquitoes in Brazil. However, once I arrived in the country the political climate was a much more pressing issue, with the dismantling of health and scientific institutions.

Thus, after our meeting yesterday, and Jason Ludwig’s reminder that the theme of our Field Campus is the plantation, I decided to focus on how it related to mosquitoes in New Orleans.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito and the yellow fever virus it can transmit are imbricated in the violent histories of settler-colonialism and slavery that define the plantation economy. The mosquito and the virus arrived in the Americas in the same ships that brought enslaved peoples from Africa. The city of New Orleans had its first yellow fever epidemic in 1796, with frequent epidemics happening between 1817 and 1905. What caused New Orleans to be the “City of the Dead,” as Kristin Gupta has indicated, was yellow fever. However, as historian Urmi Engineer Willoughby points out, the slave trade cannot explain alone the spread and persistance of the disease in the region: "Alterations to the landscape, combined with demographic changes resulting from the rise of sugar production, slavery, and urban growth all contributed to the region’s development as a yellow fever zone." For example, sugar cultivation created ideal conditions for mosquito proliferation because of the extensive landscape alteration and ecological instabilities, including heavy deforestation and the construction of drainage ditches and canals.

Historian Kathryn Olivarius examines how for whites "acclimatization" to the disease played a role in hierarchies with “acclimated” (immune) people at the top and a great mass of “unacclimated” (non-immune) people and how for black enslaved people "who were embodied capital, immunity enhanced the value and safety of that capital for their white owners, strengthening the set of racialized assumptions about the black body bolstering racial slavery."

As I continue to think through these topics, I wonder how both the historical materialities of the plantation and the contemporary anthropogenic changes might be influencing mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans nowadays? And more, how the regions’ histories of race and class might still be shaping the effects of these diseases and how debates about them are framed?

The documentary follows Ensingmer during his searches for information and during the government hearing regarding the water contamination. This includes multiple interviews with former residents of the base, including former marines who are currently undergoing treatment for cancer and other illnesses caused by VOM's. The film mainly includes input from these residents; while it does provide some information through texts during pauses in the film, it does not provide exact numerical data, and mostly provides emotional appeals. The film also follow those effected as they attempt to collect information about all of those exposed to the contaminated water, including a spreadsheet of former male residents diagnosed with breast cancer. 

This article has been referenced and discussed by health professionals annually , as well as by the government to establish a need to address mental illness after disasters.

1) Jean-Pierre Chevenement:  a key player in passing this immigration legislation, the leader has since stepped away from the political scene after running for the presidency in 2002. As the sitting minister, Mr. Chevenement has been described as a key member of the left; I'd be intrigued to see what other pieces of legislation he has worked on

2) Didier Fassin: Dr. Fassin, a reigning expert in french state anthropology, appears to bring an element of medical background to his analysis. Obviously, he seems to be a well-respected member of the anthropological community-- where and what other projects he has on-going would be interesting 

3) French healthcare: this type of legislation obviously puts a tremendous amount of strain on the general healthcare; depending on the system utilized by the French state, this could have a detrimental effect on the quality and timing of care delivered. 

Unfortunately, this article does not describe a disaster situation, thus this question is not answerable. 

The methods and data used to produce the claim, include historical accounts of what happened of Chernobyl, as well as direct quotes and data from field studies conducted in the towns surrounding Chernobyl in Ukarine. The study is also supported through numbers and figures that disect the economy and sicoer the negative impact the disaster had on Ukraine's economy- it created a need for disability to survive.

This study appears to be through the University of Illinois at Chicago. The vast majority of secondary institution-based studies come from federal grants, usually through National Health Institute or through a specific government agency interested in that topic.

I was compelled and convinced by the whole film, the footage and the interviews with first hand accounts provided compelling and persuasive evidence that the film was well made and valid.

The methods and data used to produce the findings is a random collection of narratives from vairous genders, ages, adn walks of life. The only thing they all have in common is a history of seizure disorders. The string that ties them all together allows the author to analyze how a narrative of illness can affect a diagnosis or a familial realtionship

This group has yet to produce a published report; however, they openly provide data about their response time-- which averages less than 4 minutes. This is a significant decrease from outside ambulatory agencies. Additionally, state statistics can be extrapolated to the group, such as noting that the vast majority of homicides still occur with Bed-Stuy, leading to their approximately 100 calls per month.