Satire: Typhoid Mary Would Be a Hero Today

She insisted on her freedom, not matter who it killed.

Mary Mallon imagePhoto byCreative Commons:

During the Covid pandemic, we heard a lot about spreader events. In retrospect, I’m surprised we didn’t hear more historical reference to Typhoid Mary. When I was in school, I heard brief references to her but didn’t get the full impact of her story.

Typhoid Mary’s real name was Mary Mallon. Estimates vary as to how many people she infected, but estimates run from between 51 and 122. As for the number who died from the disease they contracted from her, the official number is three, but unofficial estimates put it as high as 50.

She really had to work at it to infect that many people

When I first heard of Typhoid Mary, I assumed she must have worked at a restaurant and inadvertently infected a lot of people before she knew she was a carrier.

That was not the case.

During thew time of 1900–1907, Mallon worked for eight families in the New York City area. In seven of those families, cases of typhoid popped up.

Generally speaking, Mary would leave without giving a forwarding address when the outbreaks occurred.

To say Mary was uncooperative when confronted with the evidence is an understatement

Eventually, all these cases led to an investigation which pointed to Mary as the source of the outbreak. Mary was unwilling to give stool and urine samples.

Ultimately, she was arrested as a public health threat. When samples were finally gathered, it was determined that the disease was present in Mary’s gallbladder.

She was quarantined for nearly three years before finally agreeing to take precautions so has to not spread the disease.

But things didn’t work out

After being released from quarantine, Mary didn’t take cooking jobs. Instead, she did things like laundry, which paid less.

Eventually. she went back to cooking and those she was cooking for went back to getting sick and dying. The authorities ended up giving her [private one-story cottage.

She remained in quarantine for the last 23 years of her life, though some accommodations were made to make her life more bearable.

Would she be a hero today?

Well, she did value her independence above all else. She ignored evidence that indicated she was a spreader. She deified authorities. She paid no attention to medical evidence.

She sounds like the type of person some people might rally around today.

How did that play out in her day?

Initially, media support was in favor of public health authorities. However, later the media became more favorable to Mallon, saying she didn’t know she was a spreader, and germs, not Mary were the problem.

I suspect the survivors of those who contracted the disease from Mary and subsequently died might disagree. In addition, the fact that Mary would leave at the onset of an outbreak of typhoid seems to be more than a coincidence.

Spock said it best

I’m talking about Mr. Spock, not Dr. Spock. You might remember when Spock was dying, he said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

That’s a tough sell nowadays.