In Week 2 of the FYS: Toilets Change the World, we completed a reading packet, read to ourselves, and outloud to the class, and then proceeded to answer questions on what we’ve read to get a better understanding on the cholera outbreak. I think those readings are very informative and interesting, and working on the questions with a partner I felt was a good way to get a better understanding. The video and readings prior to the readings done in class, gave me a better understanding of the case study performed by John Snow, and I felt it was a great precursor.
I learned from John Snow’s case study that having a controlled experiment will always have a clean and straightforward outcome. I also learned that the more background information you know, the better understanding/grasp you will have on an experiment, or even just an observation. His background knowledge of anesthesia was key for him to unlock that miasma wasn’t the cause of the cholera outbreak. I was shocked that John Snow’s knowledge of the cause of cholera wasn’t believed at first; people wanted to hold onto the miasma theory.
And I am shocked that people are still dying from cholera in present day. The article reviewed together in class was terrifying to read. In so many developing countries, cholera is still alive and well. It was saddening to read about the cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2010 (just months after the horrible earthquake that took place there) and brought there by the U.N.
There needs to be a way in which we can stop cholera outbreaks completely, which we can do by providing better sanitation methods, not just for developed countries, but most importantly for developing countries.
