dr. kenneth noll
highlighted insights
Language
​Dr. Noll explained how a full understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the disease is not necessary to understand how it spreads and infects, but that it is crucial to understand the difference between virulence and contagiousness. Virulence is the ability of a virus to infect and cause disease, and contagiousness is the likelihood that the disease itself can spread between people. Ebola is a highly virulent disease, but is not very contagious. The widespread public opinion, however, sees Ebola as being highly contagious, which significantly contributed to the rumors and panic.
Scientific Communication
Once politicians got ahold of the information, they were able to “weaponize” the information to use for their gain. Leading to more misinformation and public distress, the likes of which being exponentially magnified in today’s political climate. Dr. Noll has a particular interest in communicating science to the public, and he noted that this and other related misinformation is a large part of why he wrote the article for UConn Today.
Ebola Case in America
The cases of Ebola infection in America were the catalyst to the mass hysteria spread by the media. People would have heard about the outbreak occurring in West Africa, but would not have cared or thought it was relevant. Before infections occurred in the United States, Dr. Noll says he was aware of the West African outbreak but had not heard it discussed much. He firmly believes that if Ebola was contained to Africa it would likely have still been in the news but would not have frightened people as much.
dr. john nwangwu
highlighted insights
Racism as Ignorance
Dr. Nwangwu explained how he was in charge of assembling a team for the WHO to go to the area and combat the Ebola outbreak. He notes that his group had particular biases and preconceived notions about Guineans, which is the area in which he was working. He regrets not being able to take an anthropologist or medical anthropologist on his team, as they would have been very helpful in identifying and communicating cultural practices and differences between the WHO team and the Guinean population.Their expertise could have led to an easier way of forming a connection with the community, which could have impacted how care was being administered. He explains that these prejudices come from a place of ignorance and that people naturally make assumptions about things they don’t know. This ignorance and mistrust also go both ways; the people of Guinea did not trust the Ebola workers in their PPE (personal protective equipment), which then turned into hostility and weariness of their presence in their communities. This hostility made it difficult to gain people’s trust, which made accomplishing their job more complex.
Conspiracy Theories and Mistrust
Conspiracy theories are borne out of the assumptions made about the unknown, which leads to a cycle of ignorance and misinformation. The distrust of the CDC and the WHO, coupled with the assumption that they are not doing enough to control the outbreak, was quite an annoyance, as Dr. Nwangwu described because he was on the front lines of the infection and could see that the WHO was doing everything they could. Part of the delay was that the goal was to prevent the transmission of the disease, and this requires isolation, which requires infrastructure that the countries in question did not have. Dr. Nwangwu then had to return to the United States to aid from the government in constructing facilities to improve the infrastructure, which was not widely known to the general public. People became scared when they saw the disease spreading, and the panic created by the media and politicians only added fuel to this fear.
Disease has no Boundaries
When discussing disease travel, Dr. Nwangwu said that the “little beasties” (germs) do not discriminate and will infect whoever they please, regardless of socioeconomic status or how “great” a country is. This is an important connection to the West Point quarantine; people in authority assume that those in lower social standing are automatically to blame for an epidemic, but the germs don’t care who you are. Additionally, people don’t like to think about spending money and resources in other countries to solve “their” problems. However, they often don’t realize that by starting control and prevention at the source that it will save more time and money than if the disease traveled overseas.
common themes
A common thread between the two interviews was Dr. Noll’s mention of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s quarantine of Nurse Kaci Hickox, who had returned from caring for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. In a news report from the Washington Post, Christie is seen blaming the CDC for being “behind” on controlling Ebola and acting out of fear to quarantine Hickox (DelReal 2014). He incited the hysteria by insinuating that inadequate efforts by the CDC to control the outbreak led to infection in Texas, and due to this fear he was implementing quarantine procedures in New Jersey as well (DelReal 2014). As someone involved in the behind-the-scenes workings of Ebola containment, Dr. Nwangwu expressed annoyance that people were so ignorant of the efforts of the CDC and the WHO to control the outbreak. He said that he had heard people say that the CDC was not doing their job, and that this was the reason that Ebola came to America. This fear and mistrust of the government was rapidly picked up by politicians such as Christie, and then twisted and broadcasted to the public.
This instance of containment against one’s will is parallel to the same strategy occurring in countries with high Ebola prevalence. An ethnographic study conducted by Umberto Pellecchia of the involuntary quarantine of West Point, Monrovia in Liberia during the 2014 Ebola outbreak explores the harmful effects of quarantine and analyzes the risks and benefits. Among the findings from this study is the theme that prevention measures that are not explained to the target population and infringe on their civil liberties can be harmful and potentially more so than the alternative of not imposing containment strategies. Additionally, the practice of blaming an easy target for a disease spread while ignoring the big picture is significant. The citizens of West Point were one day subject to “harsh, violent” enforcement measures to prevent them from having any contact with other communities (Pellecchia 2017). The government was able to justify this because the population in question has a lower socioeconomic status and therefore is an easy scapegoat to blame for noncompliance with containment measures (Pellecchia, 2017). However, as may be expected from the use of unreasonable force, this quarantine measure resulted in protests and riots, which caused death and injury to many. This is a prime example of the debate of quarantine as a harm reduction measure and its potentially more severe consequences.
These two cases raise the question of who has the authority to determine the rules of quarantine, and if any one person or entity should be granted that right. Despite being based on scientific evidence, the rules of quarantine due to Ebola risk remain blurry and are dependent on a case by case basis. The debate surrounding Hickox’s quarantine is a matter of whether it was “necessary” to prevent the spread of Ebola based on factors including the contact she had and the contagiousness of an exposed individual (Gatter 2016).
thought provoking questions
Who has the right to decide what warrants quarantine? Is this a decision that just one entity has the authority to make?
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Whose responsibility is it to ensure the health of others? Is this anybody’s responsibility?
CItations
DelReal, Jose A. “Chris Christie Accuses 'Hyperbolic' CDC of Falling 'behind'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 May 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/10/28/chris-christie-accuses-hyperbolic-cdc-of-falling-behind/.
Gatter, R. (2016), Quarantine Controversy: Kaci Hickox v. Governor Chris Christie. Hastings Center Report, 46: 7-8. doi:10.1002/hast.584
Pellecchia, Umberto. “Quarantine and Its Malcontents: How Liberians Responded to the Ebola Epidemic Containment Measures.” Anthropology in Action, vol. 24, no. 2, 1 June 2017, pp. 15–22., doi:10.3167/aia.2017.240203.
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