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Study Guide and Reflection Questions
1. In the episode, the epidemiologists talk about mistrust towards the government and international organizations. What are some of reasons that they give to explain why there was this mistrust?
2. The government and public health workers neglected to add an exit to a large ebola treatment unit. Reflect on what message that sends to the public. What are some ways to remedy trust after an issue like that?
3. Shankar and the epidemiologists talk about three strands of the web that made this such a complicated case.
Pause the Episode. Describe how you would handle each of these three strands:
Resume Episode. Describe how the epidemiologists dealt with each of these three strands.
How do their solutions compare to yours? Are there any decisions you disagree with?
4. At the end of the episode, Athalia Christie talks about some of the cultural changes that she and other health workers had to ask people to do. What are they?
5. Reflect on these cultural changes. How would you go about convincing people to change their customs?
6. Athalia Christie says that in dealing with an outbreak like this, "it's really understanding what it is that's driving people. You have to understand their contexts, their concerns and their needs." Why do you need to understand people's drives, contexts, concerns, and needs? Why are these so important in public health?
7. Throughout this episode, the government and public health workers have to make a lot of trade-offs in order to stop the Ebola virus from spreading. Do you believe all these trade-offs were justified? Were there any that you wouldn't have done yourself?
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