Internationalism and Health

1. Internationalism and Health LECTURE Science, Medicine and Transnationalism Aaron Pascal Mauck MA, PhD 2/26/2013 DATE LECTURER

2. Course Business Political Foundations of Transnational Science Transnational Health in Europe Transnational Health in the Americas

3. Political Foundations of Transnational Science • Transnationalism has its Twentieth Century origins in Progressivism • The idea of a transnational science suggests that scientists and science operate • outside national borders, and that the benefits of science are universally shared • In efforts to control global disease, transnationalism signals a shift • from the nineteenth century protection of national borders through quarantine • and surveillance to a recognition that many diseases are borderless. • Progressivism and tropical medicine • Have much in common: • Faith in Science • Creating new kinds of expertise • Importance of rational administration • Greater role for governments • Universality of problems and solutions

4. Transnationalism in Europe: LNHO Scientific enthusiasm for transnationalism was tempered by political realities. Conservative political turn after 1918 In many countries signals end of Progressive politics- return of market-driven and nation-centered policies. International cooperation remains limited Despite LON: Isolationism in US and Tensions between France and Germany Control of VD constitutes a collective goal in the twenties and thirties, but International cooperation in standard-setting remains due to tensions between France & Germany & the North America & Europe Emergence of competing diagnostic standards: Wassermann test in Europe (created 1906) and Kahn Test in North America (created in 1925)

5. Transnationalism in Europe: Pasteur Institutes I 1888: First Institute is established in Paris With the goal of spreading knowledge about the control and treatment of infectious disease through Germ Theory Initial institutional focus on rabies inoculation, smallpox vaccination, and diphtheria antitoxin. Spread of institutes to other countries reflected The spread of expertise in treating these diseases Administering Rabies Inoculation By 1914, Pasteur Institutes had spread to several countries, but had different goals and lacked a coherent vision of science, save for a commitment to collaboration and possibly an affinity for French Science

6. Transnationalism in Europe: Pasteur Institutes II After 1918, the Paris Pasteur Institute reasserts control over the other institutes, promoting “scientific imperialism” rooted in a French vision of science Ban on German Science & scientists upheld by The Pasteur Institutes 1921-1926 attempt at collaboration between The Institute and the RF fails largely due to The unwillingness of the institute to share control or compromise on its vision Vallery-Radot “If French reigns over boundless regions, if epidemics are prevented or thwarted, if sanitary reforms can be undertaken, cities built up, harbors opened to trade, If Europeans can live safely in hostile Africa or the Far East, if morbidity and Mortality decrease in a striking way for native populations, all these transformations Must be attributed to colonial medicine.” Louis-Pasteur Vallery-Radot, 1938

7. Transnationalism in the Americas: The Rockefeller Foundation • The RF initially focuses on education, institutional development, and disease • Eradication. Disease eradication serves the triple goal of improved health, • development, and political rationalization • The RF chooses eradication campaigns based on the viability of the targets: • Hookworm, Yellow Fever, and Malaria all thought to be well-understood • And easily controlled • Eradication efforts predicated on an alignment of goals between the RF and • National governments: • Tool for administrative centralization • Tool for nation-building • Tool for local and international economic development • Tool for national & RF propaganda

8. Transnationalism in the Americas: Hookworm in Mexico Veracruz region becomes site of hookworm Eradication efforts throughout the 20s & 30s Work predicated on alignment of RF goal of Illustrating Efficacy of eradication and National goals of Quelling political unrest in the region by providing Key services, and entrenching state power Initial focus on treatment and limited concern for Infrastructure reflects immediate political realities. As political unrest dissipates in the 30s, emphasis Shifts to infrastructure and education RF Latrine Construction Project The explicit goal of Americanization emerges at the RF in part through contact with non-democratic regimes, where public health measures can serve as a tool For the promotion of pro-democratic ideology While Hookworm initially serves as a demonstration tool for what the RF might do In the future for other diseases , it eventually becomes explanation for poor health and poverty in the Region.

9. Summary The Interwar Years (1919-1938) witnessed the rise of new transnational Scientific aspirations, rooted in the Progressive political project, and linked to Goals like economic development and the promotion of a perpetual peace. In the areas of disease research and eradication, transnational projects entailed coordination between private foundations (Pasteur Institute, Rockefeller Foundation) and national governments. Transnational science was often employed in the service of national goals: Rationalization of state administration, entrenchment of state power, Encouragement of state-supported industries. Transnational science was also subject to international pressures: Competition between different models of scientific research or public health Intervention, disagreements between old enemy states Thus, transnational science remained more a goal than a reality as it pertained to the universally shared goals of disease control and eradication