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Simply reading the prologue of this book creates many questions in my head. At first it was: why is she able to continue to work in the food industry with this disease, then it was: how could they isolate her from living her life? Then it went back to: she can’t keep working in the food industry if she continues to kill people. I was confused why we had to read about a woman who was the first silent carrier of the typhoid fever until I realized that the book dives into the development public health in America and at the same time, how to treat it’s infected citizens.
Just like how my views were changed and rearranged in the prologue, so has many aspects of society. It’s common that many would see it as obvious to isolate those that have a deadly and infectious disease, but once that person is a loved one that view is suddenly reversed. This book grabs my attention because it encourages the readers to take a side themselves, where the author provides perspectives from both Mary Mallon and also the health and safety policy makers, as sign of a favorable historical practice in my opinion.
I thought it was harsh to take into account the fact that she was a woman to determine that she was more of a health threat to society because statistically she may be the main cook for a family. If that argument is used to determine the level of typhoid threat within families, they would not only have to isolate the all women, but also the men who may also have involvement in a daily act such as cooking. I like sernian1 comparisons debates on vaccinations that we have today, where early 20th century is a time much before us, but we are experiencing very similar problems.
