Environmental Engineering Reference
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principal factors: first, the existence of a real threat to the material interests of a given
state as a result of epidemic disease and, second, the interpretation of the scientific
communities concerns into the language of materialism and national security by the
policy community in order to galvanise political action.
on materialism and Fear
the actions taken by the policy community, such as improved global pathogen
surveillance systems and public health regimes, are then the product of two central
factors, namely materialism and fear. epidemics have historically generated
extraordinary levels of affect (i.e., emotion) within involved populations, leading
to generalised economic and social chaos within the states direclty involved, and to
quarantine and trade embargo (i.e., isolation) by other states that fear the spread of
contagion. the emergence of a novel pathogen is accompanied by high levels of
uncertainty regarding its virulence, transmissibility, and aetiology. this uncertainty
generates high levels of negative affect (fear), which in turn generates very real
damage to a state's material interests, over and above the actual morbidity and
mortality that result from the epidemic.
the SarS epidemic provides a vivid illustration of this paradigm wherein the
emergence of the SarS coronavirus, coupled with seemingly high levels of both
virulence and transmissibility, combined to generate extreme levels of anxiety
throughout the entire Pacific Rim community.
Major epidemics have historically produced significant worry, anxiety, fear,
panic, and even mass hysteria in an affected society. Depressed and helpless,
victims and survivors may heavily discount their future and engage in all kinds of
risky behaviour, such as crimes and riots, that put the social fabric to a severe test.
Confused and shocked, people may turn to superstitious or bizarre practices during
an outbreak. Moreover, fear and panic generated by the disease can also take the
form of mass exodus. For example, when plague struck Surat, a city in the western
part of India in 1994, the fear of an epidemic was so intense that 500 000 residents
fled in less than a week.
a series of factors exacerbated SarS-associated fear and panic during the
course of the contagion. First, the virus is highly pathogenic and contagious as
the main route of transmission was direct contact, via the eyes, nose, and mouth,
through infectious respiratory droplets. Unlike the threats of HIv/aIDS, it is
difficult to control the behaviour that caused the transmission of the disease.
Second, the disease exhibited relatively high levels of mortality in infected hosts.
the morbidity rate of 10.88 percent is significantly higher than the 2.5 percent case
fatality rate for the 1918 Spanish influenza, which led to the death of approximately
50 million people worldwide (Johnson and Mueller 2002; taubenberger and Morens
2006). third, SarS is an indiscriminate killer that affected all classes, genders,
and ethnicities. the contagion was reported to have passed through the exclusive
Zhongnanhai compound, the headquarters of china's communist Party.
 
 
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