Back in 2018, I was pursuing my master’s in public health. At the time, I had taken all the classes necessary for me to earn the degree. Yet, I wasn’t in a position to graduate because I still had my thesis to wrap up. To maintain my graduate student status, I chose to register for an independent study, where I was assigned two public health non-fiction books to read and reflect upon.
Since my reflection on the two books were not long enough to warrant further development into a manuscript for a scientific journal, I figured I’d share it here. I admit it’s also nice to see my thought processes back then and how they somewhat align with my current career as a researcher. In any case, below is an unedited reproduction of the reflection paper I wrote to earn a passing grade.
REFLECTION PAPER
Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map, as well as Richard Preston’s Demon in the Freezer were two books that caused a paradigm shift in the perception of my future role in the public health sector. Prior to reading the books, I knew that I wanted to go along the research path. However, I did not want to merely conduct research for its sake. Rather, I knew that I wanted my work to have national and international significance for this generation and for the generations unborn. I believe that the lessons I learned from these two books have equipped me with the tools needed to attain my long-term career goals.
The first thing I learned from studying the two books is the fact that new ideas will always be challenged by proponents of the status quo. I realized that there is always going to be opposition to change. This opposition to change does not mean that the opponents are evil people, or that they have ulterior motives. Usually, the opposition to change is due to the knowledge levels of the opponents at the time. In order to promote the buy-in of the proponents of the status quo into the proposed change, it is imperative for the change agent to make use of empirical evidence and clear communication to make opponents to see the blind spot without making them feel stupid. A classic example of this could be found in Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map, where John Snow tries to convince the public health leaders and policy makers that cholera was water-borne, rather than transmitted through the air as was the medical belief of the day. To prove his point, John Snow did not immediately challenge the leading health authorities of the day, mocking their ignorance. Rather, John Snow took his time to research the data available on death patterns in his city, as well as painstakingly making use of both quantitative and qualitative methods of research to get answers to difficult questions concerning the epidemiology of cholera. It was only after John Snow had gotten answers to his questions that he went on to publish a journal article documenting his findings. John Snow’s approach was enlightening to me because it is easy to be tempted to be arrogant and cocky when one makes an important discovery that refutes popular belief. Rather, he followed due process and permitted the normal scientific process to allow his findings to become mainstream.
From Richard Preston’s Demon in the Freezer, one of the lessons that stood out to me was from the management perspective. In 1965, the World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to find a way to eradicate smallpox. The WHO recruited the services of D. A. Henderson, who at the time was the head of surveillance at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), to assist in implementing their goal. I believe that among many other factors, one of the reasons that led to the eradication of smallpox was Henderson’s leadership and management style. Many times, people think that the road to significance is largely in isolation. However, this is not true, especially with the fact that it is not efficient for one individual to execute every facet of his/her goal alone. Henderson recognized this, and he developed a ruthlessly efficient system for hiring only the best people and giving them clear goals. As a result, smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 and the protocol used in achieving this goal still serves as a template for the WHO in the eradication or control of other worldwide epidemics.
Finally, Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map, as well as Richard Preston’s Demon in the Freezer both showed me how to prospect for innovative ideas. For a long time, I had always thought that innovative ideas came solely from deep thoughts. However, upon reading the two books, I realized that new ideas come by observing the mundane and looking for connections between those mundane observations. Indeed, innovation comes from drawing different conclusions from what everyone else has seen and thought of but did nothing about. This pattern was replicated numerous times in both The Ghost Map and Demon in the Freezer. For instance, John Snow was able to find holes in the miasma theory that foul smells were responsible for causing ailments by simply observing the fact that people whose jobs were to empty full sewers in the city of London were usually very healthy men. If diseases like cholera were transmitted by pungent smells, the sewer workers should have been the weakest. On the flip side, it is also worrying that innovations in the wrong hands can be used to unleash untold mayhem to the world. For instance, there are fears that terrorist organizations are in the process of using genetic engineering principles to modify the smallpox virus into something much more debilitating. In fact, there are valid concerns that future wars might involve the use of biological weapons such as genetically modified viruses and bacteria.
In conclusion, I consider Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map, as well as Richard Preston’s Demon in the Freezer as two timely books I am glad to have read at this phase of my academic career. I am glad that my mindset concerning the proper way to introduce change, manage teams, and, source for innovation, has been positively expanded. In addition, I have also been made aware of the grave responsibility attached to producing research work of national and international significance.
References
Johnson, S. (2006). The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and The Modern World. Penguin.
Preston, R. (2003). The Demon in the Freezer. Fawcett Books.
