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Mutual Aid/Best Practices vs Local Practices

_jzhao

This image reminds me of how mutual aid and communities keep each other fed, and safe, and how local practices are actually best practices. My own research, although not immediatley related to the specific public health concern of COVID, will focus on Indigenous food soverignty, particularly the right and autonomy to ferment and distribute alcohol (紅糯米酒) within the Amis community, and their current fight with the local health department on declaring whether or not their alcohol is "safe" for public consumption and distribution.

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harrison.leinweber

Sonja Schmid, PhD is an associate professor in STS at Virginia Tech's National Capital Region Campus. She specializes in science and technology policy, nuclear emergency response, the nuclear industries in the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Dr. Schmid researches how entities, ranging from local municipalities to nation-states, respond in the event of a nuclear emergency. She is not personally involved in the initial emergency response; however, she researchers previous emergency responses and advises on how to reduce the consequences of nuclear disaster. She is also currently working on an NSF-supported project to  "investigate the challenges of globalizing nuclear emergency response," as a part of which, she organized a monthly speaker series that focuses on research and education related to nuclear emergency response.

All above information sourced from http://www.sts.vt.edu/faculty/sschmid/ unless otherwise noted.

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harrison.leinweber

This article argues that when examining the spread of disease, fighting biosocial aspects are as important as fighting the biological aspects. The authors argue that structureal violence, which is introduced by inequality leads to premature death and disability. By "resocializing" we can prevent diseases such as TB and AIDS from staying diseases of the poor.

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harrison.leinweber

It appears that MSF is motivated by data showing that people in countries without adequate local health services do not recieve the care they need. MSF attempts to bridge the gap between needing healthcare and actually getting it by operating in those aforementioned environments.

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harrison.leinweber

The CEHC aims to "support high-quality academic programs for ... students," research to produce new knowledge, provide learning opportunities and training for professionals in order to "prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from a growing array of natural and human-caused risks and threats in NYS and around the world."

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harrison.leinweber

Dr. Schmid discusses emergency response to nuclear incidents, albeit at a very high level. She deals much more with the large scale factors involved in responding to an incident rather than the individual locality. She also addresses the importance of international NGOs in assisting locals after the first-responders have done what they can.

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harrison.leinweber

The article discusses how many current organizations use a cost-benefit analysis to determine how much effort needs to be put into a response. This goes from vaccination to quarantine. The article also discusses how tuberculosis was fought in post-Soviet Georgia. Finally, it discusses how "biosecurity" will be looked at under a different and more holistic lens. The article didn't make an argument, so it was difficult to find support.