Dr. Root’s presentation on John Snow and Health Geography was really intriguing. I admit, when I thought about geography before this presentation, all that came to mind was studying rocks, land formations, etc. However, Dr. Root’s presentation has completely challenged the way I view geography. She showed me that understanding the cause and origin of a disease requires the incorporation of people from many different professions–as well as thinking outside the box–in order to truly understand how to eradicate the disease and finding vaccines for it. I also liked how Dr. Root provided the class with what truly goes into making a vaccine, and how vaccine efficacy is determined. In addition, I found her discussion on John Snow and Henry Whitehead particularly interesting when talking about how he refuted the many opposing scientists’ questions regarding his water pump hypothesis. This showed me that in order to find something new and ground-breaking, you have to think outside the box in a non-conventional sense (while also providing concrete evidence to both support your claim and refute any criticism). This also reminded me of when Dr. Root explained that the reason why her research found that the only house showing signs of the West Nile Virus was actually due to that house not having air conditioning. It really went to show that simple, yet scientifically out of the box, observations and questions can sometimes result in explaining the origin of a disease.
The air conditioning example also was interesting to me too, Kareem…it is often these hidden factors that are the main variables in some cases. For example, do you think those individuals would have left their windows open if they knew their vulnerability or would they get the AC or at least a better screen. Oversimplification of communicable disease factors or relying only on drugs to treat disease seems incomplete given that humans and their environments are so complex.