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I was interested in the accident prevention mindset that was in part responsible for poor response in past nuclear disasters, so I read a summary of “Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity” by Ulrich Beck, one of the works referenced in Schmid’s article. The summary better explained the societal mindset that a structured set of rules for accident prevention was more reliable that the educated and adaptive individual.

The point that nuclear fallout does not respect national borders was interesting, so I looked at how far fallout can spread. An understanding of how geological features such as mountains and valleys can affect the immediate fallout zone and how meteorological conditions can spread eradiated rain and wind significant distances from the site of a disaster would be important in the evacuation and clean up portions of a response to a nuclear disaster.

When discussing existing emergency response groups that dealt with nuclear disasters the IAEA was mentioned several times, so I looked into the organization and their responsibilities. Although the IEAE is often criticized for its slow response to Fukushima, I found that the organizations stated missions are to promote peaceful use of nuclear energy and safety, as well as implement safeguards meant to prevent military use of nuclear energy. While an international group that works closely with the nuclear industry it does not claim any responsibility to act as a response group to nuclear disasters.

The bibliography was not included in the pdf, and was not easily available online. From the article itself it is clear that the author was involved in a significant amount of original research in Ankara to gather data for this article.

The bibliography shows references to several papers by many of the same authors, showing it was produced as a continuation of previous ideas but showing new information learned through the PIH’s activities in Haiti and Rwanda. The bibliography also shows many references from the early to mid 1990’s showing similar thoughts to initial research done in Baltimore and other places with high rates of AIDS.

The main argument is supported using historical data and documents from humanitarian aid organizations as well as analyzing media reports in order to determine the public opinions over the past several decades.

Stakeholders from every level of the health care system were mentioned, as well as he portrayal of Liberians in the quarantine zones and living in Monrovia. For the citizens in quarantine zones, the film emphasized the challenges that come from an outbreak including food and water shortages, fear, and the rising tension caused by a lack of information and the government’s actions. The main family followed throughout the film was faced with the challenge of trying to get out of Monrovia and bringing their children the United States to join the rest of the family, an understandable decision in a time of crises. The decision to leave Monrovia however directly opposes the decisions made by the government and health officials who imposed quarantines as a way of containing the virus, and were forced to lift the quarantines due to rioting.

The data used to support the claims of the article were from existing sources such as the Aid Worker Security Database, as well as from the interviews and focus groups help by the authors. It is important to note that the methods used to support the argument depended on data that may be incomplete, from questionable sources, or biased due to the lack of research and dependable data gathering for this topic.

This article has been referenced in several articles, although due to the number of scientific articles written about the World Trade Center Collapse there are likely more. One such article is “Dealing with Disaster: The Politics of Catastrophe in the United States, 1789-1861”.

No bibliography is available in the PDF as the article is a published as the third chapter in a book. The bibliography of the book found online does not separate sources by chapter, however the extensive list of sources and historical aspect of the article suggests a significant amount of research into the statistics and available archived applications.

The main argument is supported primarily through interview segments with displaced residents from New Orleans, some of whom had returned to the city and some who had not yet been able to go home. The article also supplied descriptions of the government programs and security teams that were assigned to protect the city, which supported the claims that the government failed to properly support survivors. Finally the article included statistics as to the conditions of the communities after several years and the percent of the population that had returned, rebuilt, or was still living in trailers or temporary housing.

Emily Goldman is an epidemiologist with a background in public health, she currently works for NYU College of Global Public Health and teaches a course in psychiatric epidemiology. Sandro Galea is an epidemiologist and physician working at Columbia University, he currently sits on two New York City councils for Hygiene and Public Health.