The Time Period

To fully understand any story, it's essential to understand the time period. Nina's story is especially time sensitive because the whole world was affected by the Ebola crisis.

Local stories in Dallas, Texas:

• "Sick woman at Dallas train station not on Ebola watch list"
• "Ebola Scare Turns Dallas Hospital into a 'Ghost Town'"

National news stories:

• "American Views on Ebola Response and U.S. Global Health Efforts"
• "Ebola, enterovirus, errors: 2014 was not the best year for public health"

Global Health News:

• "Ebola Outbreak: Nigeria is a 'week away' from beating virus"
• "How Ebola Changed the World"

All the stories I've chosen are related to Ebola in some way. This may seem broad, but the way that the rest of the world reacted and viewed Ebola at the time that Nina Pham contracted Ebola and her lawsuit, in some way affect the resulting events.

On a local level in Dallas, the prevalent emotion of the time was fear. In the first story, a woman on the train vomits and the whole train is shut down. Had this happened at another time, such precautions would not have been taken. The author article is about how people began to avoid Texas Health Presbyterian, the hospital that Nina and Duncan stayed at. This article supports the idea that Texas Health Presbyterian had a lot at stake in the trial and in Nina's claims; the hospitals whole reputation was being lost. 

On a national level, I chose stories that voice the concern that Americans felt in 2014. They felt that the American Healthcare system had failed them, not just because of the Ebola virus but also because of many other mistakes that had been made that year. This general feeling from Americans could have played in Nina's favor in the trial.

Globally, Ebola had an enormous impact on the world, especially in African countries where the outbreak was devastating. The first story emphasizes how many extreme precautions had to be taken for Nigeria to reach an Ebola-free status, from an emergency presidential decree to monitoring over 900 people- which included updates twice a day on how they felt. The second article goes into more depth on how Ebola changed these countries and the world. The world was in a frenzy and extreme measures were taken everywhere to stop the spread. Sierra Leona even went so far as to cancel Christmas. 

K., Mark. "A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree."  12/23/2010 via Flickr. Creative Commons License. 

The last article really makes me question our American health system. If countries around the world were being so careful, why weren't we even giving our nurses the training and equipment they needed?