He was famous for having linked, in 1904, a series of typhoid fever outbreaks to a cook named Mary Mallon who was herself immune to the disease: Typhoid Mary, the first asymptomatic superspreader known to modern science. The pandemic, of course, was the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, which caused 50 million deaths worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States. “Nobody seemed to know what the disease was, where it came from or how to stop it,” Soper wrote. “Anxious minds are inquiring today whether another wave of it will come again.”The pandemic currently underway could hardly be more transparent by comparison. We know how the virus spreads, who among us is more vulnerable and what simple precautions can be taken against it.

Source: International New York Times March 16, 2021 07:00 UTC