Conspiracy Theories and Ebola: Lessons Learned Important for Future Pandemics

The public health campaign against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced serious challenges, some due to conspiracy theories and denial. These beliefs were so powerful that they even caused repeated attacks upon health care providers and medical centers. These conspiracy theories were nothing new, as they are a common feature of all frightening epidemics, such as HIV and COVID-19. These narratives also circulated during the 2015 West African Ebola outbreak. Addressing conspiracy theories during an epidemic requires a coordinated campaign involving not only local leaders but also the cooperation of social media organization

Conspiracy Theories and the Zika Epidemic

After a Zika outbreak began in Brazil in April 2015, narratives blamed the virus on a variety of international actors, including chemical companies and the Gates Foundation. Many of these narratives drew upon older conspiracy theories that had circulated in Latin America during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Whether these narratives denounced transgenic mosquitoes or pesticides, they reflected not only the fear created by a mysterious wave of birth defects but also a profound mistrust of health authorities and transnational corporations. This paper will examine the narratives that circulated on YouTube, blogs, podcasts, and other alternative media sources, which typically blamed outside forces (and their dangerous use of science) for the emergence of the virus. These popular narratives provide insight into how Latin Americans in general—and Brazilians in particular—have interpreted this epidemic in the context of globalization

Public Trust, Deliberative Engagement and Health Data Projects: Beyond Legal Provisions

In England, a new scheme for collating and sharing General Practitioners’ data has faced resistance from various quarters and has been deferred twice. While insufficient communication and ambiguous safeguards explain the widespread dissatisfaction expressed by the public and experts, we argue how dwindling public trust can be the most damaging variable in this picture - with implications not only for this scheme, but for any future project that aims to mobilise health data for medical research and innovation. We also highlight the indispensability of deliberative public engagement on the values being prioritised in health data initiatives, the significance of securing social license in addition to legal assurances, and the lessons in it of global pertinence

Beyond academia – interrogating research impact in the Research Excellence Framework

Big changes to the way in which research funding is allocated to UK universities were brought about in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), overseen by the Higher Education Funding Council, England. Replacing the earlier Research Assessment Exercise, the purpose of the REF was to assess the quality and reach of research in UK universities – and allocate funding accordingly. For the first time, this included an assessment of research ‘impact’, accounting for 20% of the funding allocation. In this article we use a text mining technique to investigate the interpretations of impact put forward via impact case studies in the REF process. We find that institutions have developed a diverse interpretation of impact, ranging from commercial applications to public and cultural engagement activities. These interpretations of impact vary from discipline to discipline and between institutions, with more broad-based institutions depicting a greater variety of impacts. Comparing the interpretations with the score given by REF, we found no evidence of one particular interpretation being more highly rewarded than another. Importantly, we also found a positive correlation between impact score and [overall research] quality score, suggesting that impact is not being achieved at the expense of research excellence

Adopting the Principles of Universal Design into International and Global Studies’ Programs and Curriculum

The ideals of universal design have profoundly impacted instruction, policy, and infrastructure in course architecture and design within elementary education and at some universities. Within international and global studies, however, these principles have not deeply affected either pedagogy or scholarship despite the fact that classes in international studies may include more international students and third culture kids1 than classes in other programs. Instead, in North America (as well as in much of Latin America and Europe), the current pedagogical model calls for students either to develop strategies on their own to succeed in class or to self-identify with documented disabilities if they need particular assistance or accommodation. This approach relies on a banking model for education, which does not focus upon learner agency. This paper argues that by adopting three principles—learner autonomy, the negotiated syllabus, and universal design—international and global studies programs can better meet the needs of diverse learners and reflect the field’s commitment to inclusion and social justice

Continuous Flow Generation of Acylketene Intermediates via Nitrogen Extrusion

A flow chemistry process for the generation and use of acylketene precursors through extrusion of nitrogen gas is reported. Key to the development of a suitable continuous protocol is the balance of reaction concentration against pressure in the flow reactor. The resulting process enables access to intercepted acylketene scaffolds using volatile amine nucleophiles and has been demonstrated on the gram scale. Thermal gravimetric analysis was used to guide the temperature set point of the reactor coils for a variety of acyl ketene precursors. The simultaneous generation and reaction of two reactive intermediates (both derived from nitrogen extrusion) is demonstrated

Long-Term Changes in Endemic Threshold Populations for Pertussis in England and Wales: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Lancashire and South Wales, 1940-69

Metapopulation dynamics play a critical role in driving endemic persistence and transmission of childhood infections. The endemic threshold concept, also referred to as critical community size (CCS), is a key example and is defined as the minimumpopulation size required to sustain a continuous chain of infection transmission. The concept is fundamental to the implementation of effective vaccine-based disease control programmes. Vaccination serves to increase endemic threshold population size, promoting disease fadeout and eventual elimination of infection. To date, empirical investigations of the relationship between vaccination and endemic threshold population size have tended to focus on isolated populations in island communities. Very few studies have examined endemic threshold dynamics in ‘mainland’ regional populations with complex hierarchical spatial structures and varying levels of connectivity between subpopulations. The present paper provides the first spatially explicit analysis of the temporal changes in endemic threshold populations for one vaccine-preventable childhood infection (pertussis) in two dynamic regions of England and Wales: Lancashire and South Wales. Drawing upon weekly disease records of the Registrar-General of England and Wales over a 30-year period (January 1940–December 1969) regression techniques were used to estimate the endemic threshold size for pertussis in the two study regions. Survival analyses were performed to compare disease fadeout duration and probability for both regions in the pre-vaccine and vaccine eras, respectively. Our findings reveal the introduction of mass vaccination led to a considerable increase in threshold size for both Lancashire (~387,333) and South Wales (~1,460,667). Significant growth in fadeout duration was observed in the vaccine era for pertussis non-hotspots in both regions, consistent with geographical synchronisation of epidemic activity. Regional differences in endemic threshold populations reflect significant regional variations inspatial connectivity, population dispersion and level of geographical isolation