Dr. Root Reflection | Madison Lubman

Dr. Root spoke to the class, firstly, about John Snow which lead to an informal conversation on the affects of geography on diseases and vaccines. John Snow was considered the Father of Modern Epidemiology and was one of the first health geographers. He looked at the complex spread of Cholera in London. It was interesting that Dr. Root avoided discussing John Snow in terms of just his Cholera outbreak map, but instead discusses in more depth about the studies that he performed before and after the map. The class then went on to discuss the history of Cholera and how London people believed that miasmata caused the illness. It was extremely impressive that Snow was able to hypothesis that Cholera was transmitted via water and then went on to do studies, surveys, and questionnaires to prove his hypothesis. This further delves into the paradigm shift idea that science is not steady and is affected by new knowledge. After discussing the lasting affects of Snow’s discoveries, Dr. Root talked further about vaccines efficacy and effectiveness which I found very interesting because I have not taken a class involved with virology. I enjoyed discussing Dr. Roots research and learning about the lasting effects she has had on the evolving field and research that is done today. I had never thought about disease in relation to geology or patters such as water ways, herd immunity, social patterns, or culture. I thought the spread of diseases based on the location of the infected and the people the person came in contact with was nearly the sole reason for outbreaks. I would be interested in researching more about how these real world, recently discovered, factors could drive evolutionary processes especially with the recent era of not getting children vaccinated due to personal beliefs.