The author is Didier Fassin, a French sociologist and anthropologist who was trained as a physician in internal medicine. He developed the field of critical moral anthropology and currently does research on punishment, asylum, and inequality. This research looks at the social and political forces that affect public health trends, so is not directly involved in emergency response.
The policy was created in 1988; it was created to support previous legislation, such as the Disaster Relief Act of 1970, which was amended in 1974 by President Nixon.
The policy was created in in 1999 after concerns brought up by the Team Leader of the Chemical Weapons Improved Response Team (CWIRT), U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command over whether first responders to WMD (weapons of mass destruction) incidents were liable for pollution and other environmental consequences of their decontamination/ life-saving efforts.
The article's main points cover the major challenges impeding research studies on violence that affects health service delivery in "complex security environments". The problem isn't lack of data regarding violence affecting health service delivery, but the lack of "health specific" and "gender-disaggregated" data, or data that's not completely tied to humanitarian aid.
The authors suggest several ways to increase research: increased collaboration between academia, NGO's, and health service organizations, inserting a research component in aid operations, and increasing funding to academic and aid organizations.
The aftermaths of Sandy had created many vulnerabilites to the communities around the shores. There were about 840 million gallons of raw sewage scattered into the Passaic River; and since the sewerage system had struggled to get back to full operating hours and service, there were 4.4 billion gallons of partially treated sewage were released into New York Harbor. In addition, many infrastructure was severely damaged after the storm: houses, power substations, police headquarters, etc.
Almost all of the references cited in the bibliography were taken from Google Scholar, implying that the authors used this database to collaborate on the article through the internet. Many of the articles cited were from Paul Farmer's own works, so he also seems like the main contributor to the article.
Emergency response was addressed in IV. Global Health and Emergency Response. They discussed how organizations have different approaches to emergency response, either going for preparedness (WHO), immediate mitigation (humanitarian organizations), or management of global health threats (Gates Foundation). Short term solutions (emergency response) are much more common while preparedness-based solutions to prevent emergencies or minimize risks are often not funded and difficult to maintain due to the social/economic/ international issues that would need to be addressed.
The college offers undergraduate major and minor programs in emergency preparedness, homeland security, and cybersecurity. The major requires 39 credits and 12 in a concentration field while the minor requires 18 credits (6 classes) within the college. They also offer a graduate certificate in emergency preparedness, homeland security, and cybersecurity.
The study is in the Annual Review of Public Health. This is just one journal out of many Annual Reviews; the studies/ topics published are solely related to public health, such as epidemiology, biostatistics, and health services. Health professionals use the Annual Review to look at major articles in Public Health, for research, and for teaching.
Emergency response is addressed in the "Post-Disaster: Preventing and Treating Mental Health Conditions" section, with the debriefing done by emergency responders referenced. However, critical incident stress debriefing hasn't shown to be effective in the recovery process or preventing mental health disorders. Psychological first aid (PFA) is suggested as a post-disaster intervention, but it seems like a duty for mental health care providers, not emergency responders.