Craig Spencer reflects on his journey to emergency medicine and global health, and discusses his volunteer service for Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) in response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Spencer focuses on the Ebola response efforts mobilized by the U.S. government and international NGOs, and differentiates between measures motivated by national biosecuri ty concerns and those guided by a concern for global public health. He outlines the economic, political, colonial, developmental, and cultural factors that contributed to the emergence and spread of Ebola in West Africa, and shares memories from his experience working in the MSF Ebola treatment unit in Guéckédou, Guinea. Spencer also remembers his Ebola infection and treatment in New York City, and the media attention his infection provoked. Also discussed are the contribution of Western ignorance of, and condescension toward, West African cultures and traditions to the trajectory of the outbreak and response, the importance of international experience in the training of global public health practitioners, and Spencer's 2015 visit to the White House and participation in post-mortem discussions about the lessons of the intervention with the Obama administration officials who led the U.S. government response
Presidents--United States; Public health--International cooperation; Public health--United States; Ebola virus disease--Africa, West; Ebola virus disease--Transmission--Africa, West; Spencer, Craig; Obama, Barack; Médecins sans frontières (Association)
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
52 pages
Note (Biographical)
Craig Spencer is an emergency physician, professor, and global public health practitioner. At the time of the interview he was assistant professor of emergency medicine and population and family health at the Columbia University Medical Center, and th e director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Spencer has worked as a field epidemiologist and emergency healthcare provider in many countries around the world. Among his many deployments, Spencer worked as a coordinator of the Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontières national epidemiological response in Guinea during the Ebola outbreak in 2014
Note
Interviewed by Mary Marshall Clark on April 19, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Craig Spencer, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023