The Politics of Contagion

Contagion events have occurred throughout history leaving death and destruction in their wake. Often sensationalized in movies and shows such as Contagion and The Walking Dead, contagion events are life-altering events filled with gory symptoms and elevated mortality rates. The dangers of contagion events prompted governments to develop agencies with the purpose of preventing and mitigating the risks contagions pose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies across the globe pour millions of dollars each year into eliminating the risk of contagions and making the world a safer place. However, while more resources are dedicated to fighting contagion events than ever before, risk remains and new areas of tension are borne out of disease management. The Politics of Contagion explores three recent contagion events and unpacks the consequences of each event. The Anthrax contagion of 2001, Ebola of 2014, and the current Zika outbreak are examined as well as the role of the CDC. The Politics of Contagion analyzes the role of policy via the CDC in contagion events and explores its effects or moments of tension. Moments of tension during contagion events can include the creation of risk groups, racism, and economic damages. While we have come a long way from the days of the Black Plague, this analysis highlights the areas where improvement is needed. From the media panic and hostility toward CDC-Ebola policies in 2014 to the current decline in tourism to Zika hotbeds, this text highlights the role policy plays in the creation of these moments of tension. At the center of this thesis is Foucault’s argument that power resides in every area of life. If power indeed exists everywhere, then power must also lie in the CDC and its policies concerning contagion events. The power is exercised via CDC policies and recommendations and ultimately aids in the birthing of many moments of tension. These moments of tension echo beyond the borders of the United States, and flow throughout the global community. Through analyzing the CDC’s handling of the case studies included in this thesis, I unpack the moments of tension and argue the role of power in the policies, which have the unintended effect of aiding in the creation of moments of tension for both United States citizens and individuals beyond U.S. borders

VI Workshop on Computational Data Analysis and Numerical Methods: Book of Abstracts

The VI Workshop on Computational Data Analysis and Numerical Methods (WCDANM) is going to be held on June 27-29, 2019, in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Beira Interior (UBI), Covilhã, Portugal and it is a unique opportunity to disseminate scientific research related to the areas of Mathematics in general, with particular relevance to the areas of Computational Data Analysis and Numerical Methods in theoretical and/or practical field, using new techniques, giving especial emphasis to applications in Medicine, Biology, Biotechnology, Engineering, Industry, Environmental Sciences, Finance, Insurance, Management and Administration. The meeting will provide a forum for discussion and debate of ideas with interest to the scientific community in general. With this meeting new scientific collaborations among colleagues, namely new collaborations in Masters and PhD projects are expected. The event is open to the entire scientific community (with or without communication/poster)

Quarantine, Isolation, and Metaphorical Takings: Balancing Individual Rights and Public Health Responses to Disease Outbreaks

Quarantine and isolation are methods employed by public health officials to control the spread of dangerous disease pathogens through physical isolation of those exposed or symptomatic. While use of these methods has declined in the last century through advances in medical knowledge and treatment, emerging disease threats will likely require increased reliance on them. Despite this, quarantine statutes and related regulations fail to provide compensation to those subject to them, and little recourse exists to make those individuals whole for losses incurred, though the pandemic has highlighted a need for work in this area. One means of shifting the burden of such losses back to government actors enacting public health orders may be through recognition of a metaphorical, individually held property interest in an individual\u27s own body. This reconceptualization of individuals\u27 relationships to their bodies should be leveraged in attempts access Constitutional Fifth Amendment takings claims and providing remuneration for losses suffered at the hands of government actors while protecting public health through curbing infectious disease spread. While limited caselaw exists to support such claims, democratic ideals including justice and fairness require recognition of the harms result and from quarantine and isolation beyond due process claims alone, and further consideration by policy makers with respect to how, and upon whom, the burdens of such orders fall. Advocating for remuneration itself is one component in the absence of appropriate state legislation and regulatory action mechanisms such as metaphorical Fifth Amendment takings claims present another means to reach the same ends. Ideal policy solutions in lieu of such claims include creation state and/or federal compensation funds for a subset of individuals subject to such state action, coupled with the creation of statutory or regulatory protections for common concerns that individuals subject to public health orders experience. The article pulls its recommendations from an analysis of press coverage of several quarantines that occurred during the 2015 Ebola crisis, primarily focusing on the narrative of two women: Lousie Troh, quarantined in Dallas, Texas, and Kaci Hickox, quarantined in New Jersey and Maine, respectively. Their stories, and other related Narratives this paper notes, should inform the structure of appropriate protections for those subject to public health orders, with a structure focused on direct and indirect economic losses created by their imposition. Such policy solutions should also be dynamic, seeking further insight from the experiences of individuals subject to Orders, and subject to ongoing revision based on experience. While metaphorical takings are one means through which to create just outcomes, legislative action may present the most reasonable and appropriate means to create equitable protections and to incentivize compliance by the individuals who bear collective public health burdens in the protection of the broader health

Epidemic orientalism: social construction and the global management of infectious disease

This dissertation examines how certain epidemic outbreaks become "global threats", that is, diseases that become the focus of international regulations and organized responses while others do not. To answer this question, this dissertation draws upon archival data collected at the World Health Organization (WHO) archives in Geneva, the Western Cape Archives in Cape Town, the British Library, British National Archives, the Wellcome Library Archives in London, and twelve qualitative interviews with senior global health actors in order to analyze five cases when disease threats were prioritized internationally as well as how these constructions patterned responses to outbreaks. I begin by exploring the formation of the first international disease controls in the 19th century, the International Sanitary Conventions, created to prevent the spread of three diseases- plague, cholera and yellow fever. I probe how these earliest conventions patterned responses to diseases covered under them and limited responses to those beyond their scope. Examining how these conventions transformed, I explore why the same disease priorities were maintained by the WHO in their International Sanitary Regulations of the 1950's. Finally, I analyze the transformation of the International Health Regulations in 2005 and its effects on the assessment of disease threat. This dissertation shows that three factors structure the construction of disease threat: epidemic orientalism, economic concerns and field dynamics. Epidemic Orientalism, a discourse motivating the construction of disease threat that first emerged in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, positioned the colonized world as the space from which Europe and the Imperial powers needed to be protected. This orientalist gaze prioritizes the control of diseases emanating from colonial sites that threaten international trade and commerce and has been re-inscribed in all past and present regulations. These factors explain how and why plague, cholera and yellow fever came to be maintained as the primary diseases of international concern until the 21st century. As the WHO has recently been challenged in its authority to manage disease threats, these two factors are also mediated by the WHO's manipulation of symbolic power within a new field of infectious disease management which conditions responses to outbreaks today

Viruses

Since the recent epidemics of yellow fever in Angola and Brazil as well as the importation of cases to China in 2016, there has been an increased interest in the century-old enigma, absence of yellow fever in Asia. Although this topic has been repeatedly reviewed before, the history of human intervention has never been considered a critical factor. A two-stage literature search online for this review, however, yielded a rich history indispensable for the debate over this medical enigma. As we combat the pandemic of COVID-19 coronavirus worldwide today, we can learn invaluable lessons from the historical events in Asia. In this review, I explore the history first and then critically examine in depth major hypotheses proposed in light of accumulated data, global dispersal of the principal vector, patterns of YF transmission, persistence of urban transmission, and the possibility of YF in Asia. Through this process of re-examination of the current knowledge, the subjects for research that should be conducted are identified. This review also reveals the importance of holistic approach incorporating ecological and human factors for many unresolved subjects, such as the enigma of YF absence in Asia, vector competence, vector dispersal, spillback, viral persistence and transmission mechanisms.33255615PMC7759908915

A Conflictive Triuvirate Consruct of Epidemiologic Systems Failure

Epidemiologic systems failure (ESF) is a major hurdle in minimizing the spread of infectious diseases during outbreaks. The reasons for ESF include the technical limitation of personnel handling epidemic crises, strictly defined health policies that limit the actions of epidemiologists, and personal perspective\u27s reservations towards the intentions of health agencies. The purpose of this triumvirate mixed-methods case study was to examine factors of infectious disease control mechanisms useful for determining ESF. Three juxtaposed pre-emptive factors (technical [T], organizational [O], and personal [P] perspectives were used to determine how the multiple perspectives inquiring systems and fuzzy logic revealed factors causing ESF so that remedial tools may be constructed. The juxtaposed ESF-TOP model formed the research theoretical framework and allowed for clustering the ESF factors. Data sources were direct quotations from TOP based secondary data of 4 well-publicized participants; who had Ebola, HIV-AIDS, Tuberculosis, or Typhoid disease; and randomized quantitative TOP hypothetical data sets were created with Microsoft Excel software and used to model an Ebola outbreak of 10 theoretical subjects. Data were analyzed using TOP guidelines from which T, O, and P perspective themes emerged. The findings indicated that a disjointed TOP perspective specifies a serious ESF, a strictly overlapped TOP indicates an effective containment of ESF, and the overall fuzzy set with T given O and P indicates the actual ESF. The findings may result in positive social change by helping epidemiologists identify critical outbreak control factors which may minimize the outbreak impact

A Conflictive Triuvirate Consruct of Epidemiologic Systems Failure

Epidemiologic systems failure (ESF) is a major hurdle in minimizing the spread of infectious diseases during outbreaks. The reasons for ESF include the technical limitation of personnel handling epidemic crises, strictly defined health policies that limit the actions of epidemiologists, and personal perspective\u27s reservations towards the intentions of health agencies. The purpose of this triumvirate mixed-methods case study was to examine factors of infectious disease control mechanisms useful for determining ESF. Three juxtaposed pre-emptive factors (technical [T], organizational [O], and personal [P] perspectives were used to determine how the multiple perspectives inquiring systems and fuzzy logic revealed factors causing ESF so that remedial tools may be constructed. The juxtaposed ESF-TOP model formed the research theoretical framework and allowed for clustering the ESF factors. Data sources were direct quotations from TOP based secondary data of 4 well-publicized participants; who had Ebola, HIV-AIDS, Tuberculosis, or Typhoid disease; and randomized quantitative TOP hypothetical data sets were created with Microsoft Excel software and used to model an Ebola outbreak of 10 theoretical subjects. Data were analyzed using TOP guidelines from which T, O, and P perspective themes emerged. The findings indicated that a disjointed TOP perspective specifies a serious ESF, a strictly overlapped TOP indicates an effective containment of ESF, and the overall fuzzy set with T given O and P indicates the actual ESF. The findings may result in positive social change by helping epidemiologists identify critical outbreak control factors which may minimize the outbreak impact

Air travel and COVID-19 prevention in the pandemic and peri-pandemic period: A narrative review

Air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging for travellers, airlines, airports, health authorities, and governments. We reviewed multiple aspects of COVID peri-pandemic air travel, including data on traveller numbers, peri-flight prevention, and testing recommendations and in-flight SARS-CoV-2 transmission, photo-epidemiology of mask use, the pausing of air travel to mass gathering events, and quarantine measures and their effectiveness. Flights are reduced by 43% compared to 2019. Hygiene measures, mask use, and distancing are effective, while temperature screening has been shown to be unreliable. Although the risk of in-flight transmission is considered to be very low, estimated at one case per 27 million travellers, confirmed in-flight cases have been published. Some models exist and predict minimal risk but fail to consider human behavior and airline procedures variations. Despite aircraft high-efficiency filtering, there is some evidence that passengers within two rows of an index case are at higher risk. Air travel to mass gatherings should be avoided. Antigen testing is useful but impaired by time lag to results. Widespread application of solutions such as saliva-based, rapid testing or even detection with the help of “sniffer dogs” might be the way forward. The “traffic light system” for traveling, recently introduced by the Council of the European Union is a first step towards normalization of air travel. Quarantine of travellers may delay introduction or re-introduction of the virus, or may delay the peak of transmission, but the effect is small and there is limited evidence. New protocols detailing on-arrival, rapid testing and tracing are indicated to ensure that restricted movement is pragmatically implemented. Guidelines from airlines are non-transparent. Most airlines disinfect their flights and enforce wearing masks and social distancing to a certain degree. A layered approach of non-pharmaceutical interventions, screening and testing procedures, implementation and adherence to distancing, hygiene measures and mask use at airports, in-flight and throughout the entire journey together with pragmatic post-flight testing and tracing are all effective measures that can be implemented. Ongoing research and systematic review are indicated to provide evidence on the utility of preventive measures and to help answer the question “is it safe to fly?“