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CITIZEN SCIENCE

Epistemic negotiation

Stakeholders (indigenous groups, activist, scientist, scholars, etc)

This article used data from Baltimore about AIDS care, and the authors' research in Rwanda, discussing results from the Partners in Health structural interventions and comparing them to produce their claims. 

                The majority of the data supporting their argument came from examples from outbreaks (such as AIDS), the United States Government (like the anthrax and smallpox threats in early 2000s), and the WHO (such as disease outbreak control in developing countries).

The article cites other reports, experts in various fields, and notes historical events (previous epidemics, disease outbreaks, bioterrorism) to support its arguments for biosecurity. 

The film takes more of an observer stance than an active role. The corrective action I imagine being effective is better preparedness on the local national and international level to be able to better respond not only to the direct impact of the disease but also the secondary social impacts to the community such as food, water, enforcing emergency orders, and travel restrictions. 

The program is part of the SUNY system located at the University at Albany.

1) I followed up on the old safety features of the World Trade Center. Sprinklers were the only feature that stood out from a fire safety video by the New York and New Jersey Port Authority for the World Trade Center (made 1996). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBM9-y8gfHo. However the fire was much too large for them to put out, and may have even made it worse because water, when in contact with molten aluminum explodes.

2) Next I looked into why and how the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse happened. The WTC did not have concrete core or outer. Most high-rise buildings have one or the other as concrete is not subject to fire. The WTC steel trusses and columns were fireproofed with spray foam which fell off the building on impact with the airplane. The crash through the building resulted in flammable debris getting pushed to the far walls and corners, the most vulnerable location, and fatally weakening the WTC’s steel core. NIST report never stated that the fire melted the steel beams, steel melts at 2750 degrees F, but looses half its strength at 1100 F. Parts of the WTC fires reached 1800 F on that day. With the weakening, the trusses began to sag, bowing inward causing all of the weight to rest on the perimeter columns which could not bear the load and eventually snapped. After the first floor fell, the “pan-caking” effect resulted in each floor collapsing the one beneath it.

3) Lastly I looked at the new disaster prevention features of One World Trade Center. The key features which the Twin Towers were lacking are: a concrete core with stairwells located in center, larger than required staircases, and a separate first responder stairwell. Many experts believe if the WTC had a concrete core, they would not have fallen. 

1) “‘A confusion between humanitarianism and politics–two fundamentally different orders of activity – can only lead to a mutual weakening of both”.

2) “Approaching gender-based violence as a medical or health issue alters how violence is both approached and understood; that is, rather than understanding gender violence in the context of gendered relations of power, or as part of larger histories and expressions of inequality which are inseparable from histories of class or race or colonialism, this type of medicalisation transforms gender-based violence into an emergency illness, requiring immediate intervention.”

3) “Sexual violence elicited a particular form of moral outrage in the MSF report and debate; and the question was how to justify the willingness to condemn the perpetrators in cases of rape more than with other forms of violence or torture. Should women be !C 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Medicalising and Politicising Sexual Violence 259 treated as special categories of victim, who need more protection? Furthermore, are they the only ones recognised as subject to rape? Should sex and sexual violence be seen as crimes apart, or should they be equivalent to any type of harm or injury in times of war? What is the nature of gender-based violence, and how do we qualify the particular vulnerabilities to it?”

"The impaired body, the body unable to produce, was socially illegitimate, then."

"By analogy with the therapeutic mesasures applied at the end of life for patients suffering from illness deemed incurable, we can describe the measures and procedures devised to allow foreign patients without residence rights to stay in France, receive treatment, and have their living costs paid, as a compassion protocol."

"The logic of state sovereignty in the control of immigration clearly prevailed over the universality of the principle of the right to life. The compassion protocol had met its limit."

The goal of the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy is to:

“…achieve increased resilience in communities and individuals impacted by natural and manmade disasters. Such leadership is guided by the ethics of the Triple Bottom Line: Equity, Environment, and Economy.”