LSE ID’s Dr Myfanwy James quoted in The New York Times on global epidemic responses
Dr Myfanwy James, Assistant Professor in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), has been quoted in The New York Times exploring the historical and political roots of public mistrust during health crises.
The article titled "Why Epidemics Breed Rage at Health Workers” examines the roots of mistrust and anger towards epidemic responders, from medieval Europe to modern-day Ebola responses in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Reflecting on how medical interventions and humanitarian campaigns have historically been tied to imperial exploitation in Central Africa, Dr James highlighted how contemporary suspicion is rooted in real grievances and past experience.
“Both medicine and humanitarianism have been used to advance outsiders’ interests,” Dr James explained to The New York Times investigative reporter Sheri Fink, “These deeply held suspicions actually are based on historical experience.”
The article draws on her research on the politics of humanitarianism in contexts of conflict and epidemics, with a regional focus on the eastern DRC.
Dr James stresses the critical need for humanitarian practitioners and global health organisations to account for local histories, power dynamics, and political economy when designing aid and health interventions. In eastern DRC, contemporary mistrust of the Ebola response is rooted in decades of violent conflict, contentious state-society relations, as well as frustration towards protracted international intervention that has failed to achieve its stated aims of alleviating suffering and preventing further insecurity. Concerns about ‘Ebola business’ reflect the fact that in the past, a $1.4 billion response created a political economy with job kick back schemes and inflated rental contracts that did become a source of elite enrichment, when Ebola looms less large as a threat to people whose lives are at risk every day from hunger, destitution and common infectious diseases.