15
Grace Towe
Introduction
Throughout the years, society has always relied on science to keep the population safe and healthy. On the other hand, science has always relied on itself in order to make sure that the decision and inventions that were created were to the best intentions for society. When COVID-19 infected a good majority of the population within months, scientists knew that they needed to develop new and improved technology to ensure humanity is safe. With the impact of COVID-19 hitting the entirety of the world so quickly, scientists and inventors have dedicated their work to update equipment and create new inventions to keep healthcare workers safe, patients with COVID-19 healthy, and reduce the spread of COVID-19. One of the most important inventions that meet all of these goals that scientists have is called a COVID-19 Airway Management Isolation Chamber (CAMIC). The reduced spread of COVID-19 is attributed to the use of CAMIC devices during surgeries and in patient’s rooms along with the implementation of new policies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in places such as hospitals and universities.
Connection to STS Theory
In order to create new types of technology, scientists had to rely on the past. Without past inventions, knowledge, and scientific articles, there would have been a delay in these new types of inventions. The last large-scale epidemic was the Spanish Flu, so scientists considered the medical policies from this virus. With the advancements over the last 100 years in technology, scientists were able to improve policies to properly fight against COVID-19. This is because scientists were able to look back on different types of models used in the past and recreate those models but to better efficiency. The theory where scientists use the past to mold new technology is called Path Dependency. Path Dependency “explains how history really matters – where we have been in the past determines where we currently are and where we can go in future. Even tiny, seemingly trivial differences in the path we have taken may have enormous consequences for where we are and can go” (Veenstra, 2018). It is essentially the influence that past consequences have on current decisions.
The Creation of the CAMIC Device
Shortly after the pandemic started, the FDA approved a COVID-19 Airway Management Isolation Chamber, also known as CAMIC. This device was designed to keep healthcare workers, specifically surgeons and operating room staff safe while they performed surgery on COVID-19 patients. Dr. Steven Hong states, “As he watched the COVID-19 crisis unfold across the world, Hong saw how it was overwhelming the healthcare systems in Italy and New York. He knew that COVID-19 was very contagious and healthcare workers, especially within his specialty of head and neck surgery where they are often exposed to nasal and respiratory droplets, seemed to be more vulnerable” (Military Health System, 2020). This led Dr. Hong to begin to think of ways to c