Ineffective responses to unlikely outbreaks: Hypothesis building in newly-emerging infectious disease outbreaks
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Abstract
Over the last 30 years, there has been significant investment in research and infrastructure aimed at mitigating the
threat of newly emerging infectious diseases (NEID). Core
epidemiological processes, such as outbreak investigations,
however, have received little attention and have proceeded
largely unchecked and unimproved. Using ethnographic
material from an investigation into cryptic encephalitis
outbreak in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana in 2010–
In 2013, in this paper, we trace processes of hypothesis building
and their relationship to the organizational structures of
the response. We demonstrate how commonly recurring
features of NEID investigations produce selective pressures
in hypothesis building that favors iterations of pre-existing
“exciting” hypotheses and inhibit the pursuit of alternative
hypotheses, regardless of relative likelihood. These findings
contribute to the growing anthropological, scientific, and
technology studies (STS) literature on the epistemic communities that coalesce around suspected NEID outbreaks
and highlight an urgent need for greater scrutiny of core
epidemiological processes.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
emerging infectious disease, global health, hypothesis-building