The article describes the situation in post-Katrina New Orleans as one where trauma is constantly happening and more work is going into emergency response than recovery. Instead of construction workers, social workers and the like, the military was sent by the government for aid after Katrina.
The main findings in this article is the phenomenon of "biological citizenship" that occurred in the Ukraine after the Chernobyl disaster, how "scientific cooperation and political management" developed, and how sociopolitical factors affect the course of health and disease in a country.
The parts of the film that I found most persuasive and compelling were Atul Gawande's personal experience. As both a surgeon and son, he has the unique viewpoint of being the one to be the bearer of bad news and be the one to accept his father's mortality as his cancer progressed. Gawande gives rational and emotional parts of end-of-life care, and is able to learn new ways of handling mortality as a healthcare provider and a human.
While the practical yield of such circumscribed inquiry has been enormous, exclusive focus on molecularlevel phenomena has contributed to the increasing “desocialization” of scientific inquiry: a tendency to ask only biological questions about what are in fact biosocial phenomena [1].
What would happen if race and insurance status no longer determined who had access to the standard of care?
Sometimes public health crises, such as the AIDS pandemic in Africa, can lead to bold and specific interventions, such as the campaign to provide AIDS prevention and care as a public good [54].
In this struggle, equity in healthcare is our responsibility.
The main arguments in the article are that globalization has created new threats to the public health and security on a global scale, with biological threats the foremost concern. "Biosecurity" is the goal, which looks at public health preparedness at all levels (local, national, international, global) with four domains: "emerging infectious disease; bioterrorism; the cutting-edge life sciences; and food safety." Despite increasing defenses and plans for current threats, the article notes that we need to become better at predicting new threats and identifying risks to biosecurity while adapting to changing political, environmental and infrastructure factors that create difficult ethical decisions.
The program goal is to "help prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from a growing array of natural and human-caused risks and threats in New York State and around the world" (in mission statement) by providing education, research and training opportunities in homeland/cybersecurity to its students.
The article looks at how a French law, the "compassion protocol" that gives legalizes undocumented immigrants with serious illness, was interpreted and executed by within the country. It discusses how the law is a humanitarian action and public health concern, and the difficult moral position medical professionals are put in when becoming an examiner for this department in the government.
The policy addresses public health in Title IV as part of the Major Disaster Assistance Programs. Section 42 states that the President may provide assistance for and coordinate emergency response to affected areas.
The policy addresses the immediate dangers to public health (weapons of mass destruction/ hazmat incidents) and the environmental hazards that may come from first responders attempting to decontaminate victims.
The argument is suppored by interviews with organization representatives, data reported by NGOs and other parties (like the MSF), and review of current literature on violence affecting health service delivery.