Emerging Infectious Diseases, MEDEA, and Global Fiducials

Abstract:

In the late 1960’s I began studies of cholera, a global infectious disease. Several environmental drivers of cholera epidemics were discovered and satellite sensors employed successfully to monitor temperature and ocean parameters linked to cholera epidemics in Bangladesh. Those found to be correlated with cholera are described in early publications in the 1990’s. I was invited to join MEDEA during the time MEDEA was established (1993-2001), mainly to add another dimension to analysis of climate change, biological and epidemiological perspectives. The work on cholera has since progressed to successful development of a predictive model that is currently employed in collaboration with DFID/UK, Meteorology/UK and UNICEF to cholera in Yemen. The model is being adapted for other infectious, environmentally driven diseases, including COVID-19. During 1998-2004, while serving as Director of the National Science Foundation, Karl Erb, then head of Polar Programs at NSF, and I discussed the value of classified imagery for science, notably research in the polar regions. From those discussions, a process for declassification, with NSF funding, was developed and significant scientific advances in climate change assessments were made. The fiducials released now reside in the polar program archives.