|
Bioterrorism: From the
Abstract to the Concrete
By Dorothy Wright
Medical anthropologist Monica
Schoch-Spana ’86 has never been the kind
of person who dwells
on purely abstract concepts. Now, as a senior
fellow with the Johns Hopkins University Center
for Civilian Biodefense Studies, she grapples
with issues of prevention and response to bioterrorism
— issues that have since Sept. 11 become
all too concrete.
Schoch-Spana majored in
cultural anthropology at Bryn Mawr because of
the discipline’s potential to contribute
to social change. "I was struck by the fact
that here was a profession dedicated to advancing
understanding across different social groups,"
she recalls.
As a graduate student,
Schoch-Spana focused on medical anthropology.
She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology
from The Johns Hopkins University, where she is
a research associate in the Bloomberg School of
Public Health. "Medical anthropology melds
cultural awareness with practical contributions
to improve the health of the world," she
says.
Product of a Moment
Schoch-Spana has conducted
extensive research on weapons of mass destruction,
studying worker experience in the U.S. nuclear
weapons complex and community reactions to possible
off-site radioactive contamination. Her research
has also encompassed a range of medical and public-health
topics, including HIV. "During the ’80s
there was a national concern over the health and
environmental impacts of nuclear weapons production,
and in the ’90s we had a new world order
coming in the post-Cold War era," she explains.
"We all are the products of a moment in history,
and it was my moment. What I specialize in as
an anthropologist is the anthropology of science,
technology and medicine — the whole universe
of my experience."
Given her background,
it is not surprising that Schoch-Spana was hired
as a faculty member of the Center for Civilian
Biodefense Studies. Founded in September 1998,
the center is dedicated to informing policy decisions
and promoting practices that help prevent the
development and use of biological weapons and,
should prevention fail, lessen the death and suffering
that would result.
Yet she had initial doubts
about the post. "I didn’t believe there
could be a need for a center focused on bioterrorism,"
she recalls. "It seemed like an extraordinary
problem. Nuke imagery is widespread in our popular
culture. Everyone knows a little about nukes;
we have been forced to think about them for several
generations. But bioweapons are very different:
people don’t want to think about them. So
I was intrigued, yet repelled."
Since 1998 Schoch-Spana
has focused on the social context of infectious
disease outbreaks with emphasis on public response
to such crises. As editor of the Biodefense
Quarterly, she wrote on the implications for
bioterrorism preparedness of New York City’s
1999 West Nile Virus outbreak and the 1999-2000
influenza season’s burden on hospitals. She
was a principal organizer of the 1999 and 2000
National Symposia on Medical and Public Health
Response to Bioterrorism. She has examined the
American medical and public-health response to
the 1918 influenza pandemic, published on the
implications for bioterrorism preparedness in
Clinical Infectious Diseases and produced
a mini-documentary on the health-care burdens
of a public-health emergency, "Hospitals
‘Full-Up’: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic."
Transformative Events
The events of, and following,
Sept. 11 were transformative. "I had known
intellectually that bioweapons were a problem
and was committed to studying them, but they did
not invoke my passion in the way that nuclear
weapons had," she says. "After Sept.
11, it became clear that there were small groups
of people with the desire and sophistication to
inflict mass casualties."
Schoch-Spana found that
her expertise as a medical anthropologist is sorely
needed. "We need more social scientists with
working knowledge of medicine and public health
helping to build responsible solutions to this
problem, both from prevention and response perspectives,"
she asserts. "One thing I keep bringing to
the table is that the general public is being
miscast as unable to react responsibly during
crisis. The mythical public is typecast as a rock-throwing,
hysterical mob. They are perceived as impediments
rather than as allies."
She persuasively argues
this case in an article published in Clinical
Infectious Diseases on harnessing abilities
within the civilian population to enhance the
effectiveness of large-scale response to a bioterrorist
attack. "The public must be involved
in two-way communication, mobilization and participatory
decision making," she insists.
A Capable Public
Indeed, her recent field research
has bolstered these arguments. Schoch-Spana organized
a team rapidly deployed to New York City after
the World Trade Center attacks to document and
analyze positive community reactions, particularly
volunteer groundswell. Bryn Mawr classmate Rebecca
M. Young ’86, a recent Ph.D. in public health
who works for National Development and Research
Institutes (NRDI), a public health nonprofit,
became an invaluable member of the team. NRDI’s
office at the World Trade Center had been destroyed
in the attacks; fortunately, Young and her colleagues
escaped. "I needed a highly competent social
scientist familiar with public health, and with
incredible local knowledge — that’s
Beck," Schoch-Spana says.
From their ongoing research,
the team already has discerned lessons for contingency
planners about the public’s capacity for
coordinated, resourceful response to a catastrophic
act of terrorism. "We’ve seen people
pulling together, organizing, and using pre-existing
social institutions and networks to respond,"
Schoch-Spana says. "From cooking and delivering
food to the rescue workers to cheering them on,
the broad range of creative responses has been
incredible to see."
Meanwhile, the Center for
Civilian Biodefense Studies was thrust into the
limelight. "After the initial anthrax letter
incidents, the center’s phone rang off the
hook," she says. "It was clear that
government and public health leaders were not
able to give good messages to the public quickly
enough."
Since then Schoch-Spana
has been quoted in The New York Times and
has spoken at a number of events on the need to
involve the public in crisis response. "I
use the public’s response after the collapse
of the WTC, and the lack of panic and hysteria
in the anthrax crisis, as evidence of their capabilities,"
she says. "People have seen this themselves
and it resonates with them."
Throughout her career
and especially in these difficult times, Schoch-Spana
has drawn strength from her partner, Donna, and
their young son, Leo, as well as her Bryn Mawr
friendships. "I have drawn incredible amounts
of personal and professional strength from these
women," she says. "In addition to my
education, that is probably the greatest gift
that Bryn Mawr has given me. It is a bottomless
well."
About the Author
Dorothy Wright contributes
news and feature articles on science, technology,
engineering and general interest topics to a variety
of publications, including Civil Engineering,
Engineering News Record and Bryn Mawr
Now.
|
