Rafi Arefin, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, UBC – https://geog.ubc.ca/profile/mohammed-rafi-arefin/
Thursday, October 12, 2023
5:00 to 6:30 PM
Buchanan Tower 1112
Abstract
With the outbreak of COVID-19, wastewater surveillance rapidly emerged and expanded globally as a non-invasive and unbiased public health surveillance tool. In this article we chart the variegated ecosystem of private biotechnology startups and established life sciences firms that work closely with public and nonprofit entities to create new multi-institutional spaces of public health governance. We find that these emerging partnerships present concerning transformations in health governance where profits displace public health needs, proprietary technologies blackboxpublic health decisions, and vulnerable populations are experimented on for prototyping technology.
