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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 authors support their argument by referencing a study that showed that race was associated with how quickly one received therapeutics. They also referenced that PIH was able to help in Haiti by introducing a model of care in which the patients chose someone to assist them by delivering drugs and supportive care in their home. This person would live nearby and was seen by some as a very effective way to remove barriers to care for AIDS and other chronic diseases in impoverished environments. They also say by removing issues like access to clean water that impoverished areas see, MTCT rates of HIV decreased.

The system could be difficult to work with if you didn't speak any of the languages that the site is translated into. Addionally, if you want to anotate a source, it seems like the process to do so is somewhat convoluted. Besides that, it is mobile friendly and it has a decent user interface. So overall, it seems to be easy to work with.

MSF received private funding, so they aren't tied to a particular government or external organization's way of thinking or desire to seek medical care in one area.

The program began in January of 2015 and was founded to be the first-in-the-nation security college. It was formed with funding that Governor Cuomo allocated. It's founding comes during a time of growing need for homeland security professionals.

It appears that this is an NGO report. Human Rights Watch regularly publishes articles in an attempt to draw attention to percieved human rights issues throughout the world. They claim to be an independant organization supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations. They also deny accepting any government funds whether it be directly or indirectly.

Dr Schmid discusses her view that the engineers and scientists should not be the only people looking at the response to a nuclear incident. She believes that nuclear response teams need to move away from those in the late 1900s, in which a select technically-competent few were in charge of maintaining the safety and security of nuclear facilities, to those that bring together scholars, technical experts, and international relief organizations to educate the public and determine what is in the best interest of the residents of the area as well as society in general. Dr. Schmid believes that scholarship in science, technology, society studies applies to this situation and can be a great help in determining future actions.

The citations ranged widely. Many of the citations at the beginning of the article seemed to not be related to treatment as much as they were to social issues. There were also several articles that the authors referenced that the authors had written previously. Finally, there were also articles relating to treatment and statistics based on different treatment strategies on micro- and macro-scales. These citations show that the authors may have a decent support in social reform. I'm not sure how common it is to cite your own works as fact in academia, so I will withhold comment on that.

"...responses to the problem of health and security are still taking shape" (p. 28)

" But in recent decades ... there has been an alarming shift in the 'elicate balance between humans and microbes.” (p. 7)

"The current concern with new microbial threats has developed in ... distinct domains: emerging infectious disease; bioterrorism; the cutting-edge life sciences; and food safety." (p. 9)

MSF finds it difficult to secure funding, as they rely on private donations that may not be steady as the economy changes. They also are challenged by finding qualified staff to provide medical care. Finally, they struggle with keeping their staff safe in hostile conditions.