I attended the lecture “The Changing Face of Public Health Emergency Response” on January 28, 2019 in the new Rita Hollings Science Center. The speaker was Dr. Stephen Redd, deputy director of Public Health Service and Implementation Science and director of the Center for Preparedness Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He spoke about types of emergencies, how each is handled, and gave examples of two outbreaks that he has responded to as part of the CDC.

The types of response Dr. Redd discussed were predictable, predicated, and emerging. Predictable events are those that we know will happen but where, when, and how bad it will be are unknown. These are events like hurricanes, and the response is restoring infrastructure. Predicted events are those that we cannot predict how likely it is, but preparedness is expected. Bioterrorism is an example of a predicted event, and the response would be to deploy equipment and resources that are on hand. The final category was emerging events, or those that are almost completely unpredicted and unprecedented. The response to emerging issues like the opioid epidemic is trying to understand and adapt to what is happening.

Following this, Dr. Redd elaborated on specific responses the CDC enacted when outbreaks of H1N1 in 2009 and Ebola in 2014 occurred. After these two case studies, he gave an overall view of communicating with the public during emergencies. Among these strategies were listing the actions taken to address problem, employing empathy, setting expectations, and utilizing risk communication principles.

While these overall relate to sustainability in terms of resources and our consumption in times of emergency, the part of his talk that related most to class was when he discussed population changes. Globally, we know that population is steadily increasing. We also know that urban populations specifically are growing, through internal migration and immigration. In terms of numbers, Dr. Redd shared that there are currently thirty-three countries with populations over 10 million people.

With the rise in global population comes an increase in poverty levels, particularly in the areas of densest population. This tends to be concentrated in regions of South Asia and Africa especially. The combination of high population and high poverty rates feed off of each other, holding people stagnant in low qualities of life. Due to this, Dr. Redd stated that international border crossings are increasing on an exponential curve. The total number is doubling nearly every twenty years. Alternately, those who remain in the countries are exposed to growing numbers of domesticated animals used for food. These creatures can serve as hosts or reservoirs for certain diseases, which is one mechanism by which contagious diseases are spread. The proximity of people in crowded, urban areas also allows for easier transmission.

When listening to him speak, Dr. Redd’s brief but thorough commentary on increasing global population really stood out to me. Though this was a few weeks before we began discussing it in class, population growth is a wide-reaching issue. Not only does it have implications in public health and disease rates, but also in terms of resources. We need food, fuel, and land to support us, and eventually the Earth will not be able to support us. As population grows, so does the rate of resource consumption. The increase in disease rates that is expected will only require more resources to treat and prevent said diseases, further shortening the time in which we will have enough resources. As morbidity and mortality of diseases increases, people will be inclined to have more children in hopes of greater survival. This in turn will feed the population boom and the two will work in a cyclic system unless we are careful with our resource use now.