The article has a very long list of references and most seem to be primary sources. This shows the article was developed and is supported by people who are helping and seeing people struggling economically and the effects it has on their health.
Emergency response is not directly addressed in this article but the conditions and forms of violence that are discussed in the article that emergency responders have been documented with facing, effects the way they work and respond to calls.
“In all of them, we find that health experts, policy advocates, and politicians have competing visions about how to characterize the problem of biosecurity and about what constitutes the most appropriate response.”
“even experts who understand that social issues such as poverty and deteriorating health infrastructure are critical determinants of disease risk may propose narrower technical measures given the difficulty of implementing more ambitious schemes.”
“They suggest that the uncertainties endemic to contemporary biosecurity threats such as avian flu point to the need to develop new ways of living with and managing the possibility of outbreaks that are more nuanced than current attempts to achieve absolute security at the expense of local wellbeing.”
Financially they have to secure funding. They rely on private donations that may not always be consistent. They also have to maintain certified and experienced medical staff to provide care.. Finally the security and safety of their staff when they are in areas of conflict or high violence.
One argument presented is that public engagement in technical decisions can lead to great vigilance and confidence in emergency preparedness and that decisions governing technologies should not be left to the scientist. There is benefit in including lay people and STS scholars. This also includes public awareness about emergency response instead of one elite governing body controlling what is best for the public. Nuclear emergency responses must be transparent.
The students who complete the program receive a PhD after either 4 or 5 years, as described above
The Red Cross is seen as a positive in the public eye as a positive organization for the most part; however, there has been some negative news articles.
The report consists of the main article followed by a response from Andrea Binder of the Global Public Policy Institute.
This article has been referenced in various other articles, primarly focused on societal effects after disasters.
The authors are Stephen J. Collier and Andrew Lakoff. They both have PhDs in anthropology and are professors are educational institutions. Collier is a professor of International Affairs at The New School and Lakoff is a professor of sociology at USC. They are professionally situated to discuss emergency response as they have done research in biosecurity and biothreats.