Online Conference, April 2021: COVID-19 As Revelatory Pandemic in Latin America?
Digital collection for onliine conference, "A Revelatory Pandemic?
Digital collection for onliine conference, "A Revelatory Pandemic?
Photo essay curating insights from critical disaster studies for the transnational disaster STS COVID-19 project.
Cover image for text on COVID and disaster.
Digital collection supporting a Transnational Disaster STS COVID-19 Collaboration Call, Thursday, July 9, 2020.
In New Orleans, African American communities were not only hit hard by Katrina's floods, but also by violent policing during the catastrophe and a disaster "recovery" effort that was fundamentally Anti-Black (closing of publich housing and the privatization of schools and health care). Recovery efforts were not organized along ideals of racial justice that would have addressed gaps in educational and health care resources. Instead, they were imagined along neoliberal principles that systematically excluded the city's Black population. I am interested in looking into how the Anti-Blackness of Katrina "recovery" set the stage for the virulent way COVID 19 is affecting New Orleans' African American communities.
In the US Virgin Islands, Hurricanes Maria and Irma decimated what were already decrepit public school and public health systems. Public schools and hospitals had not been property repaired and remained under-supported as of early March 2020. In places like the Island of St. Croix, residents reported the hospital having only one physicial on staff, and indicated fear of misdiagnosis and prolonged waiting times kept them from seeking health care there. The clientelle of the public health system is predominantly Afro and Hispanic Caribbean. Meanwhile, US "mainlanders" (who are predominantly white) are reported to seek their healthcare off island, something only those with ample financial resources can do. Infection rates and fatality rates for the USVI seem rather low from official reports, but it is important to find out if this is because testing itself is not readily avialable in the territory.
Media coverage from hard-hit cities suggests there is a disproportionate number of arrests and citations related to enforcement of social distancing among racial minorities.
Also, police response seems to have followed very different patterns in the case of "re-open" protests and anti-police brutality protests.
I looked up bioterrorism agents and cases in which they were used. I looked on the CDCs website where they discuss preparation and planning to review their protocol for bioterrorism. On the same website, I also looked at the information for first responders to bioterrorism.
Three major ways the arguements are supported are as follows
Emergency response is not really discussed in this article, since the focus is the investigation carried out after disasters have been cleared. He does mention responders at the Hague Street Explosion and the fire departments role in both that, the Iroquois Fire, and 9/11. He also mentions that had there been better fire response, the outcomes could have been different.
Conference program:
A Revelatory Pandemic? Disaster Social Science and COVID 19 in Latin America
April 20 and 27, 2021