Two recent talks by Colgate professors give some context to the ebola outbreak response from two angles, one by a virologist examining the nature of epidemics, and the other from a perspective of government response, specifically in Liberia.
Mary Moran
In a September 23 lecture at Duke University, Mary Moran, professor of anthropology and Africana and Latin American studies, focused on how the crisis is a major challenge for Liberia’s President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected president of an African nation, who some are calling to resign.
“With the relentless and not inaccurate official descriptions of the epidemic as ‘out of control’ and threatening the stability and even existence of the nation state, what can a 76-year-old woman half way through her second and last term in office do to convince her fellow citizens to comply with the emotionally wrenching ‘best practices’ of virus containment, including giving up their sick, dying, and dead family members to strangers in white ‘space suites,’ in most cases never to see them again,” Moran said.
At a recent campus brown-bag discussion, Geoff Holm, an associate professor of biology whose research focuses on reoviruses, told students that current speculation of the possibility of the virus becoming airborne is without much merit, as such a mutation is an incredibly unlikely biological stretch.
“I don’t think the fears about it mutating and becoming airborne are really founded,” Holm said.
Listen to the following audio clip of Holm’s talk about why he believes ebola will not spread through the air:
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