X Disease | Disease X: Medical Mystery-Solving and Epidemiological Change
Name
Robbins-glmr-sm-sts-2022-thesis.pdf
Description
Thesis PDF
Size
344.88 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
57b801a93ed794e136221ecf5c399935
Author(s)
Robbins, Gabrielle
Advisor(s)
Wallley, Christine J.
Date Issued
September 2022
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis addresses epidemiological knowledge-making in the face of new, unknown, emerging diseases. It uses two cases, Australian X Disease of the early 1900s and Disease X of the dawning 2000s, to broadly interrogate how medical mystery-solvers marshall forms of experimentation and classification to identify and contain unknown diseases. While dominant theories of millenial disease preparedness emphasize treating emergent disease like other global, virulent epidemics like Zika and Ebola – comparisons of scale and scope – this thesis uses the Australian X Disease to argue for historical approaches to the medical unknown – comparisons through space and time. Given than epidemiological practice conditions what can be known as much as what is overlooked in the face of the unknown, such long-ranging investigative energy can be instructive contra the pitfalls of established medical practice.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society
Terms of Use
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Copyright retained by author(s)
Persistent DSpace Link
