The Pandemic Century

by The Pandemic Century- One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria

  77 “never again will be equaled”: W. H. Kellogg, “Present Status of Plague, With Historical Review,” American Journal of Public Health 10, no. 11 (November 1, 1920): 835–44; Guenter B. Risse, Plague, Fear and Politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), 156–58, 167–69. The commission was led by Simon Flexner, the head of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, and had the aim of exonerating the Marine Hospital Service.

  77 dynamited in plague pits: Eli Chernin, “Richard Pearson Strong and the Manchurian Epidemic of Pneumonic Plague, 1910–1911,” Journal of the History of Medicine and the Allied Sciences 44 (1989): 296–391.

  78 Chinese in Mukden in 1911: Wu Lien-Teh, A Treatise on Pneumonic Plague (Geneva: League of Nations Health Organization, 1926).

  79 “than in warm ones”: Oscar Teague and M. A. Barber, “Studies on Pneumonic Plague and Plague Immunization, III. Influence of Atmospheric Temperature upon the Spread of Pneumonic Plague,” Philippine Journal of Science 7B, no. 3 (1912): 157–72.

  79 “particles of sputum”: Wu, Treatise on Pneumonic Plague.

  80 “owing to climatic conditions”: Kellogg, “Epidemic of Pneumonic Plague,” 605.

  81 newspapermen were asking questions: Viseltear, “Pneumonic plague epidemic.”

  81 “technical diagnosis of Spanish influenza”: “Nine Mourners At Wake Dead,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1924.

  82 “caused by Bacillus pestis”: Viseltear, “Pneumonic plague epidemic,” 41.

  82 “malignant form of pneumonia”: “Malady outbreak traced,” Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1924, A10.

  82 “have locked themselves”: Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe, 197.

  83 “interests of the city”: Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe, 197.

  85 “Mexicans lived there”: Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe, 185–86.

  86 “dream that will pass away”: Albert Camus, The Plague (New York: Random House, 1948), 35.

  87 “restless delirium”: Emil Bogen, “Pneumonic Plague in Los Angeles: A Review,” 1925, MSS Bogen Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

  87 received plague serum: Dickie, “Reports on Plague in Los Angeles, 1924–25,” 32–34.

  88 known little about the outbreak: Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe, 197.

  88 “no reason for public alarm”: “Disease Spread Checked,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1924, A1.

  88 Philadelphia a few days later: Viseltear, “Pneumonic plague epidemic,” 42.

  89 “numbered its victims by the millions”: Viseltear, “Pneumonic plague epidemic,” 43.

  89 cancel their vacation plans: Feldinger, A Slight Epidemic, location 1838.

  89 due to pneumonic plague: Viseltear, “Pneumonic plague epidemic,” 46.

  91 not the port: Meyer, Carter MSS, Sixth interview, 209.

  91 “as the plague”: Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe, 197–98.

  92 Cumming in Washington: Bess Furman, A Profile of the U.S. Public Health Service 1798–1948 (Bethesda, MD: National Library of Medicine, 1973), 350–51.

  92 127 rodent exterminators: “Rat War Death Toll Is Heavy,” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1924, B1.

  93 Dickie warned: “Malady Outbreak Traced,” Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1924, A10.

  94 tested positive for plague: “Rat War Death Toll Is Heavy.”

  94 but that was expensive: Meyer, Carter MSS, Sixth interview, 211.

  94 spread to other countries: “Report Hugh Cumming to Secretary of Treasury, June 23, 1925,” RG 90 Records of the Public Health Service, General Subject File, 1924–1935, State Boards of Health, California, 0425–70.

  95 “plague year in California”: Meyer, “Ecology of Plague,” 148.

  95 “plague-infected” American ports: “Signs of Bubonic Plague in Three American Cities,” New York Times, February 8, 1925; Letter from Cumming to medical officers in charge of U.S. quarantine stations, December 22, 1924, RG 90 General Subject File, 1924–1935, 0452–183 General (Plague).

  96 by “bubonic rats”: “Quarantine Ordered Against Bubonic Rats,” New York Times, January 1, 1925.

  96 and the city health department: Letter from A. G. Arnoll to Robert B Armstrong, January 8, 1925, RG 90, Records of the Public Health Service, General Subject File, 1924–1935, State Boards of Health, California, 0425–70.

  96 “return of the epidemic”: “Report Hugh Cumming to Secretary of Treasury, June 23, 1925,” RG 90 Records of the Public Health Service, General Subject File, 1924–1935, State Boards of Health, California, 0425–70.

  97 plague in Jesus Lajun: Dickie, “Reports on Plague in Los Angeles, 1924–25,” 23–24.

  97 earlier historical periods: In 1348, the year the Black Death first visited in Europe, Italian chroniclers recorded symptoms characteristic of both the pneumonic and bubonic forms of the disease. The seventh-century plague outbreaks in Iceland and Norway are also thought to have been largely pneumonic, since in these northerly countries it would have been too cold to maintain rat-flea transmission over the winter and because pneumonic plague is more easily transmitted in cold weather.

  98 plague between epidemics: K. F. Meyer, “Selvatic Plague—Its Present Status in California,” California and Western Medicine 40, no. 6 (June 1934): 407–10; Mark Honigsbaum, “ ‘Tipping the Balance’: Karl Friedrich Meyer, latent infections and the birth of modern ideas of disease ecology,” Journal of the History of Biology 49, no. 2 (April 2016): 261–309.

  99 kangaroo rats, and cottontails: C. R. Eskey et al., Plague in the Western Part of the United States (Washington, DC: US Public Health Service, 1940).

  99 he concluded: Meyer, “Selvatic Plague—Its Present Status in California.”

  100 into squirrels and other wild rodents: “Plague Homepage | CDC,” accessed May 11, 2016, http://www.cdc.gov/plague/.

  100 “early-phase” transmission system: Eisen et al., “Early-Phase Transmission of Yersinia Pestis by Unblocked Fleas as a Mechanism Explaining Rapidly Spreading Plague Epizootics.”

  100 as many as seventeen infections: “Human Plague—United States, 2015,” accessed May 11, 2017, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6433a6.htm?s_cid=mm6433a6_w.

  101 died from the disease: Wendy Leonard, “Utah Man Dies of Bubonic Plague,” DeseretNews.com, August 27, 2015, accessed May 11, 2017, http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865635488/Utah-man-dies-of-bubonic-plague.html?pg=all.

  101 spilling over into other animals: Kenneth L. Gage and Michael Y. Kosoy, “Natural History of Plague: Perspectives from More than a Century of Research,” Annual Review of Entomology 50 (2005): 505–28; “USGS Circular 1372 Plague, Enzootic and Epizootic Cycles, 38–41,” accessed May 11, 2016, http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1372/.

  CHAPTER III: THE GREAT PARROT FEVER PANDEMIC

  104 the parrot was dead: V. L. Ellicott and Charles H. Halliday, “The Psittacosis Outbreak in Maryland, December 1929, and January 1930,” Public Health Reports 46, no. 15 (1931): 843–65; Jill Lepore, “It’s Spreading: Outbreaks, Media Scares, and the Parrot Panic of 1930,” New Yorker, June 1, 2009.

  104 to the authorities: “Killed by a Pet Parrot,” American Weekly, January 5, 1930.

  104 WIRE REPLY: Paul de Kruif, Men Against Death (London: Jonathan Cape, 1933), 181.

  105 Armstrong admitted: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 182.

  106 “in the laboratory incinerator”: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 203.

  107 asking for further details: The journal was most likely La Revista de La Asociación Médica Argentina. Enrique Barros, “La Psittacosis En La República Argentina,” La Revista de La Asociación Médica Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1930.

  108 “come in contact”: “Killed by a Pet Parrot,” American Weekly, January 5, 1930.

  108 outbreak in Honolulu: E. L. Sturdee and W. M. Scott, A Disease of Parrots Communicable to Man (Psittacosis). Reports on Public Health and Medical Subjects, no. 61 (London: H.M.S.O., 1930), 4–10.

  110 “tropical forest rainforest”: �
�30,000 Parrots Here; Amazon Best Talker,” New York Times, January 29, 1930.

  110 imported to the United States: Katherine C. Grier, Pets in America: A History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 244.

  112 bacillus’s etiological role: Sturdee and Scott, A Disease of Parrots Communicable to Man, 10–17.

  113 “one of our American hysterias”: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 182.

  114 study of infectious disease: Albin Krebs, “Dr. Paul de Kruif, Popularizer of Medical Exploits, Is Dead,” New York Times, March 2, 1971.

  114 Ladies Home Journal in 1929: Paul de Kruif, “Before You Drink a Glass of Milk,” Ladies Home Journal, September 1929.

  114 “genre of journalism”: Nancy Tomes, “The Making of a Germ Panic, Then and Now,” American Journal of Public Health 90, no. 2 (February 2000): 191–98.

  115 “immigrants of the parrot family”: “Topics of the Times: Warning Against Parrots,” New York Times, January 11, 1930.

  115 “mass suggestion”: “Vienna Specialist Blames ‘Mass Suggestion’ for Parrot Fever Scare, Which He Holds Baseless,” New York Times, January 16, 1930.

  115 giving offense: “Stimson’s Parrot Is Banished for Cursing,” New York Times, January 18, 1930.

  116 “afraid that you won’t”: Edward. A. Beeman, Charles Armstrong, M.D.: A Biography (Bethesda, MD: Office of History, National Institute of Healths, 2007), 45.

  116 “with which he has worked”: Jeanette Barry, Notable Contributions to Medical Research by Public Health Scientists, U. S. Department of Health: A Bibliography to 1940 (Washington, DC: US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1960), 5–8.

  116 “let alone kiss it”: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 182, 185.

  117 “yellow and blue slips”: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 181.

  117 with urgent telegrams: Bess Furman, A Profile of the U.S. Public Health Service 1798–1948 (Bethesda, MD: National Library of Medicine, 1973), 370–73.

  117 not a bacterium: Beeman, Charles Armstrong, 145.

  118 “conveyors, the birds”: “Parrot Fever Kills 2 In This Country,” New York Times, January 11, 1930.

  118 increasingly nervous public: “Hunts For Source of ‘Parrot Fever,’ ” New York Times, January 12, 1930.

  120 “abandonment of the bird”: “Parrot Fever Cases Halted in the City,” New York Times, January 19, 1930.

  120 droppings onto the floor: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 184.

  120 he had ever visited: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 125.

  120 was its name: Beeman, Charles Armstrong, 139.

  121 “this weird disease”: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 183–84.

  121 could be ascertained: “Hoover Bars Out Parrots to Check Disease: Gets Reports of Fatal Psittacosis Cases,” New York Times, January 25, 1930.

  125 mice or cockroaches: George W. McCoy, “Accidental Psittacosis Infection Among the Personnel of the Hygienic Laboratory,” Public Health Reports 45, no. 16 (1930): 843–49.

  126 “Panic Seizes Laboratory”: de Kruif, Men Against Death, 203.

  126 the day after Anderson: “Parrot Fever Attack Fatal to Dr. Stokes,” The Sun, February II, 1930.

  126 two-thirds, had been women: Charles Armstrong, “Psittacosis: Epidemiological Considerations with Reference to the 1929–30 Outbreak in the United States,” Public Health Reports 45, no. 35 (1930): 2013–23.

  126 rate of 15 percent: Edward C. Ramsay, “The Psittacosis Outbreak of 1929–1930,” Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 17, no. 4 (2003): 235–37.

  126 at the London Hospital: S. P. Bedson, G. T. Western, and S. Levy Simpson, “Observations on the Ætiology of Psittacosis,” The Lancet 215, no. 5553 (February I, 1930): 235–36; S. P. Bedson, G. T. Western, and S. Levy Simpson, “Further Observations on the Ætiology of Psittacosis,” The Lancet 215, no. 5555 (February 15, 1930): 345–46.

  127 “more porous filters”: Sturdee and Scott, A Disease of Parrots Communicable to Man, 68–74. In Bedson’s honor, the organism was named Bedsoniae, a nomenclature that stuck until the 1960s.

  127 adopted by other researchers: Karl F. Meyer, “The Ecology of Psittacosis and Ornithosis,” Medicine 21, no. 2 (May 1941): 175–205.

  127 tests far easier: Sturdee and Scott, A Disease of Parrots Communicable to Man, 88–89.

  128 “Baltimore newspaper man”: “Deny Parrot Fever Affects Humans,” New York Times, January 18, 1930.

  129 Foundation for Medical Research in San Francisco: Albert B. Sabin, Karl Friedrich Meyer 1884–1974, A Biographical Memoir (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1980); Mark Honigsbaum, ” ‘Tipping the Balance’: Karl Friedrich Meyer, Latent Infections and the Birth of Modern Ideas of Disease Ecology,” Journal of the History of Biology 49, no. 2 (April 2016): 261–309.

  130 impossible in the East: Karl F. Meyer, Medical Research and Public Health. An interview conducted by Edna Tartaul Daniel in 1961 and 1962 (Berkeley: The Regents of the University of California, 1976), 74.

  130 “world’s microbe hunters”: Paul de Kruif, “Champion among Microbe Hunters,” Reader’s Digest, June 1950: 35–40.

  130 “belittle” and “besmear” him: Meyer, Medical Research and Public Health, 358.

  131 about their bacteriological colleagues: It was on one of these expeditions that they agreed that the lives of these medical men would make “a fantastic story,” and Meyer told de Kruif to “forget science and . . . go into the writing game.” De Kruif took Meyer’s advice and by 1926 was forging a new career as a science writer. Indeed, it is said that when Sinclair Lewis was casting around for a reallife disease detective for his novel Arrowsmith, de Kruif suggested Meyer as a model for Gustaf Sondelius, Lewis’s bombastic Swedish plague-hunter. However, although de Kruif credited Meyer with the inspiration for Arrowsmith, he would subsequently claim that Sondelius had “no prototype.” Meyer, Medical Research and Public Health, 340; de Kruif to Dr. Malloch, April 16, 1931. Paul H. de Kruif papers, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research Scientific Staff, Rockefeller Archive Center, Correspondence, 1919–1940, Box 1, Folder 9.

  131 laboratory to investigate: Altogether, some 6,000 horses became diseased during the outbreak and 3,000 died.

  132 arboreal life cycle: Technically, equine encephalitis is an arbor virus transmitted from birds to horses by Aedes and other species of mosquitoes. In horses and other animals it frequently attacks the optical nerves and meninges, causing the brain to swell and leading to neurological impairment. The key experiments were conducted in 1941 in the Yakima Valley in Washington, where Meyer’s colleagues, Bill Hammon and William Reeves, succeeded in isolating the virus from Culex mosquitoes trapped in the wild and from chickens and ducks on which the mosquitoes had been allowed to take a blood meal. Although not definitive proof of mosquito-transmission, the experiments were strong evidence. Subsequent studies demonstrated that chickens were naturally infected with the virus over the winter and that it was only as summer approached and mosquito populations increased and began to feed on chickens that the virus spilled over into horses.

  132 “highly contagious disease”: Meyer, Medical Research and Public Health, 150.

  133 became ill and died: Meyer, Medical Research and Public Health, 150.

  133 “exceedingly virile”: Karl F. Meyer, “Psittacosis Meeting,” Los Angeles, California, March 2, 1932, folio leaves 1–31, 5, Karl Meyer Papers, 1900–1975, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, BANC 76/42 cz, Box 89.

  134 “crawlingon the floor”: W. E. Carter and V. Link, “Unpublished biography of Karl F. Meyer and related papers, written and compiled by William E. Carter and Vernon B. Link, 1956–1963,” “Fifth Interview,” 157. UCSF Library, Archives and Special Collections. MSS 63–1.

  137 “disease like psittacosis”: Karl F. Meyer, “Psittacosis Meeting,” Los Angeles, California, March 2, 1932, folio leaves 1–31, BANC 76/42 cz, Box 89—"Psittacosis study.” Aware of the risk of accidental laboratory exposure, Meyer insisted that test animals at the Hooper be kept in a spe
cial isolation room and that laboratory workers wear rubber gloves and masks at all times. Unfortunately, the rules were not always observed, and in 1935 it was anonymously reported that a Hooper laboratory worker had been accidentally contaminated with psittacosis during a routine examination of a smear from a mouse spleen. Only years later would it emerge that that worker had been Meyer and that the breach of protocol had occurred when he had removed his rubber gloves to take a phone call.

  139 “flowing through my veins”: Beeman, Charles Armstrong, 142–43.

  139 “who inhale it”: K. F. Meyer and B. Eddie, “Latent Psittacosis Infections in Shell Parakeets,” Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 30 (1933): 484–88.

  140 “‘capped’ old birds”: K. F. Meyer, “Psittacosis,” Proceedings of the Twelfth International Veterinary Congress 4 (1935): 182–205.

  141 “Australian parrots for centuries”: F. M. Burnet, “Psittacosis amongst Wild Australian Parrots,” The Journal of Hygiene 35, no. 3 (August 1935): 412–20.

  142 in the early 1930s: Meyer, “The Ecology of Psittacosis and Ornithosis.”

  142 flock to health: Julius Schachter and Chandler R. Dawson, Human Chlamydial Infections (Littleton, MA: PSG Publishing, 1978), 25–26, 39–41.

  143 “only to be expected”: Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Natural History of Infectious Disease (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), 23.

  CHAPTER IV: THE “PHILLY KILLER”

  146 hotel’s marketing blurb: “Hyatt at the Bellevue,” accessed September 6, 2017, https://philadelphiabellevue.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html.

  147 the “snooty” staff: Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, Trauma, the Search for the Cause of Legionnaires’ Disease (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981), 68–69, 120.

  148 his alarm deepened: “Statement of Edward T. Hoak,” in “Legionnaires’ Disease,” Hearings before House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance, November 23 and 24, 1976 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1977), 156–57 (hereafter: “House hearings on Legionnaires’ Disease”); Thomas and Morgan-Witts, Trauma, 101, 120.