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SUMMARY:TALK POSTPONED - Ineffective Responses to Unlikely Outbreaks: Hypo
 thesis Building in Newly-Emerging Infectious Disease Outbreaks - Dr Freya 
 Jephcott (CID\, University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20201201T183000Z
DTEND:20201201T194500Z
UID:TALK152041@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Miroslava Novoveska
DESCRIPTION:We are sorry\, but we had to postpone Dr Jephcott's talk. The 
 talk will happen on 1st December from 18:30.\n\nThe talk will be done on Z
 oom\, link to join:\nhttps://zoom.us/j/5670372219?pwd=UjZVeWphTlNEVENyOFkz
 NWpuc28zdz09\n\nMeeting ID: 567 037 2219\n\nPasscode: VbRSX2 \n\nOver the 
 last 30 years there has been significant investment in both research and i
 nfrastructure aimed at mitigating the threat of newly-emerging infectious 
 diseases (N-EID). Core epidemiological processes\, such as outbreak invest
 igations\, however\, have received little attention and as such have proce
 eded largely unchecked and unimproved. In this talk I will discuss process
 es of hypothesis building in investigations of suspected N-EID outbreaks i
 n sub-Saharan Africa. Using primary material from investigations into cryp
 tic outbreaks in Ghana\, Australia\, and Ethiopia\, I will trace processes
  of hypothesis building and their relationship to the organisational struc
 tures of the response. I will demonstrate how commonly recurring features 
 of N-EID investigations produce selective pressures in hypothesis building
  that favour iterations of pre-existing\, ‘exciting’ hypotheses and in
 hibit the pursuit of alternative hypotheses\, regardless of relative likel
 ihood. Many of the shortcomings in hypothesis building I will discuss are 
 evident in the initial\, flawed response to the current COVID outbreak\, h
 ighlighting the need for greater scrutiny of core epidemiological processe
 s.
LOCATION:Online
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