The Neo/Bio/Colonial Hot Zone

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Lynch

This article explores the proliferation of nonfiction narratives which warn of an impending global pandemic of African origin. Through a reading of four texts — Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague, Richard Kaplan's The Ends of the Earth, and Jeffrey Goldberg's ‘Our Africa Problem’ — the author argues that such pandemic narratives reflect unease about the United States' current and future role in Africa or other non-Western places, after a half-century of largely unsuccessful ‘development’. Second, plague tales reflect anxieties about environmental devastation in Africa and elsewhere. The article concludes that the most frightening aspect of these contemporary ‘plague tales' is the solutions they suggest to the ‘problem’ of a coming plague.

Author(s):  
Whitney Hua ◽  
Jane Junn

Abstract As racial tensions flare amidst a global pandemic and national social justice upheaval, the centrality of structural racism has renewed old questions and raised new ones about where Asian Americans fit in U.S. politics. This paper provides an overview of the unique racial history of Asians in the United States and analyzes the implications of dynamic racialization and status for Asian Americans. In particular, we examine the dynamism of Asian Americans' racial positionality relative to historical shifts in economic-based conceptions of their desirability as workers in American capitalism. Taking history, power, and institutions of white supremacy into account, we analyze where Asian Americans fit in contemporary U.S. politics, presenting a better understanding of the persistent structures underlying racial inequality and developing a foundation from which Asian Americans can work to enhance equality.


Author(s):  
Kyra B. Phillips ◽  
Kelly N. Byrne ◽  
Branden S. Kolarik ◽  
Audra K. Krake ◽  
Young C. Bui ◽  
...  

Since COVID-19 transmission accelerated in the United States in March 2020, guidelines have recommended that individuals wear masks and limit close contact by remaining at least six feet away from others, even while outdoors. Such behavior is important to help slow the spread of the global pandemic; however, it may require pedestrians to make critical decisions about entering a roadway in order to avoid others, potentially creating hazardous situations for both themselves and for drivers. In this survey study, we found that while overall patterns of self-reported pedestrian activity remained largely consistent over time, participants indicated increased willingness to enter active roadways when encountering unmasked pedestrians since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Participants also rated the risks of encountering unmasked pedestrians as greater than those associated with entering a street, though the perceived risk of passing an unmasked pedestrian on the sidewalk decreased over time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Kelly L. Brown, PhD

 Existing research on individual preparedness in the United States indicates that we are generally unprepared for disasters. While there is an abundance of research on emergency preparedness, there are gaps in our knowledge. For example, the results of extant research are unclear regarding what factors influence individual preparedness. The preparedness literature is also limited in the types of disasters examined and in understanding the timing of preparedness activities. The current COVID-19 global pandemic provides a tragic but albeit unique opportunity to address these limitations of previous research and examine emergency preparedness activities before and immediately following the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. This research is further distinctive because it examines preparedness activities related to the global pandemic rather than other types of disasters. Policy and research implications of the findings are presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59
Author(s):  
Pfiffner James P.

The peaceful transition of power from one set of rulers to another is the essence of democracy. The United States has enjoyed the consensus that elections are the means to change leadership of the country for more than two centuries. The 2020-2021 transition of the presidency marks an exception to that consensus. President Trump refused to accept the reality of his 2020 defeat at the polls, despite the fact that Joe Biden won more than 7 million more votes than Trump and won the electoral college by a vote of 306 to 232. Trump declared that he had won the election and that his opponent, Joseph Biden, had conspired to steal the election through fraudulent ballots. This paper will briefly characterize the development of presidential transitions over the past half century. It will then examine the extensive efforts of President Trump to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the volent attack on the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021. Finally, it will show how Trump tried to thwart the incoming Biden administration. It will conclude that Trump’s actions in 2020 and 2021 presented a serious threat to the American polity.


Prospects ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 139-150
Author(s):  
Mark Twain

And so Missouri has fallen, that great State! Certain of her children have joined the lynchers, and the smirch is upon the rest of us. That handful of her children have given us a character and labeled us with a name; and to the dwellers in the four quarters of the earth we are “lynchers,” now, and ever shall be. For the world will not stop and think – it never does, it is not its way; its way is to generalize from a single sample. It will not say “Those Missourians have been busy eighty years in building an honorable good name for themselves; these hundred lynchers down in the corner of the State are not real Missourians, they are bastards.” No, that truth will not enter its mind; it will generalize from the one or two misleading samples and say “The Missourians are lynchers.” It has no reflection, no logic, no sense of proportion. With it, figures go for nothing; to it, figures reveal nothing, it cannot reason upon them rationally; it is Brother J. J. infinitely multiplied; it would say, with him, that China is being swiftly and surely Christianized, since 9 Chinese Christians are being made every day; and it would fail, with him, to notice that the fact that 33,000 pagans are born there every day, damages the argument. It would J-J Missouri, and say “There are a hundred lynchers there, therefore the Missourians are lynchers;” the considerable fact that there are two and a half million Missourians who are not lynchers would not affect their verdict any more than it would affect Bro. J. J.'s.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masumi Ueda ◽  
Renato Martins ◽  
Paul C. Hendrie ◽  
Terry McDonnell ◽  
Jennie R. Crews ◽  
...  

The first confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States was reported on January 20, 2020, in Snohomish County, Washington. At the epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and University of Washington are at the forefront of delivering care to patients with cancer during this public health crisis. This Special Feature highlights the unique circumstances and challenges of cancer treatment amidst this global pandemic, and the importance of organizational structure, preparation, agility, and a shared vision for continuing to provide cancer treatment to patients in the face of uncertainty and rapid change.


Author(s):  
Alexander A. Kaurov ◽  
Vyacheslav Bazhenov ◽  
Mark SubbaRao

The COVID-19 global pandemic unprecedently disturbed the education system in the United States and lead to the closure of all planetariums that were providing immersive science communication. This situation motivates us to examine how accessible the planetarium facilities were before the pandemic. We investigate the most important socioeconomic and geographical factors that affect the planetarium accessibility using the U.S. Census Bureau data and the commute time to the nearest planetarium for each ZIP Code Tabulated Area. We show the magnitude of the effect of permanent closure of a fraction of planetariums. Our study can be informative for strategizing the pandemic response.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Finston ◽  
Nigel Thompson

In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the European Commission (EC) provided inclusive leadership, working as a team including EU member (national) officials, biopharmaceutical industry, NGOs, academic researchers and frontline health care personnel – acting with unprecedented collaboration and cohesion.  The emergence in early 2020 of the greatest public health threat in a century required new approaches and new collaborations. While the United States failed to provide leadership, the EU did not disappoint.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Phillips ◽  
S. Brungardt ◽  
S. E. Lesko ◽  
N. Kittle ◽  
J. E. Marker ◽  
...  

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