I am currently in the process of transitioning my M.A. level course on Science, Technology, and Development with 11 students to virtual instruction. One of my interests in engaging with COVID-19 is to examine how it (should) informs development ideologies and practices. How should students of development studies retool -- conceptually, methodologically, practically -- in wake of the pandemic?
The bibliography shows that many of the resources were papers on mental health issues like PTSD, as well as mental health after specific disasters. From this information, the authors were likely able to find comparisions between mental health trends after disasters, and then how those compare to PTSD trends.
This article has been cited in a few other publications, mostly regarding other aspects of Chernobyl and medicine.
The author looked at trends in medical journals and other publications - seeing how they treated stories compared to data. He also used his own experience with stories in medicine and the experiences of a friend of his, Dr. Bech.
"The purpose of this essay is to discuss a truly formidable task, the creation of an international nuclear emergency response team"
This quote sets up the rest of the article by showing the reader, regardless of their background or knowledge, that the creation of such a team is going to be difficult. Beyond the standard challenge of creating a unified emergency response team, it is an international one - therefore with language barriers, geographical differences, and large distances to travel in the case of an emergency. And futhermore, it is a team created to deal with the incertainty of nuclear materials in an emergency situation - even more of a challenge.
This article is all about emergency response. Could you imagine being called to a scene where the patient is sustaining injuries from a police officer? As EMTs, we are trained to help police for help if the patient is combative or a minor, and all they should do is restrain the patient or act as their parent for custody purposes. The police officer should not be the reason we have to provide care, unless someone's safety was at risk - which it does not seem was the case. This situation shows increased risk for EMTs in the field and more challenges we are facing each day with the politics and violence around police departments these days.
They do not seem to be very unique in any way, just the fact that they respond quickly, with plenty of resources, and the desire to do good with the resources they have, makes them a good organization. Their nurses and workers are highly trained but also have compassion, so they do not come off as trying to take over, but rather as trying to help the community from the bottom up.
The author is Sonja D. Schmid who is a professor of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech. Her area of expertise is the social aspect of science and technology, esp. during the Cold War, as well as science and technology policy, science and democracy, qualitative studies of risk, energy policy, and nuclear emergency response. As a professor and researcher she has does relevant studies on Fukushima and nuclear disasters relevant to the DSTS network. One such article titled "The unbearable ambiguity of knowing: making sense of Fukushima" is cited below:
Schmid, Sonja D. "The Unbearable Ambiguity of Knowing: Making Sense of Fukushima." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. N.p., 2013. Web.
The platform has posts that are tagged with varios topics, and each is under one of the following categories: identifing and diagnosing, mananging the dead, caring for the sick, research/clinical trials, preparedness, comminication and engagement. There are field notes, briefings and guides, and background types of posts. These filters allow someone to quickly search for a topic and a type of post so that they can find what they need and read up on a topic before they may be faced with a similar situation. If you have information you want to post, you can email in and they will post it.
I have not found any opinions in the news about the program but several other educational institutions have released announcements about the program appearing to be advertisements.