%0 Journal Article
%T A Predictable Unpredictability. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the concept of ˇ°strategic uncertaintyˇ± within global public health
%A Theresa MacPhail
%J Behemoth : a Journal on Civilisation
%D 2010
%I University of Freiburg
%X This essay will examine the seemingly new paradigm shift within global public health from the use of a scientific ˇ°certaintyˇ± to a biological and situational ˇ°uncertaintyˇ± as one of the foundations of response to infectious disease outbreaks. During the recent 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, national and international public health officials often referred directly to the ˇ°uncertaintyˇ± surrounding both the virus itself and of the course, duration and severity of the pandemic. The vague and flexible concept of ˇ°uncertaintyˇ± ¨C especially as it was employed by top virologists and epidemiologists in relationship to questions about the predictability of the influenza virus ¨C provided the scientific foundation for much of the rationale behind both national and international health responses to the global pandemic. Public health officials, epidemiologists, and scientists often deployed a type of ˇ°strategic uncertaintyˇ± as an effective tool for gaining or retaining trust and scientific authority during the H1N1 pandemic.
%K ambiguity
%K global public health
%K influenza
%K medial anthropology
%K strategic uncertainty
%U http://www.oldenbourg-link.com/doi/pdf/10.1524/behe.2010.0020