Typhoid Mary offers lesson to Tri-Citians who ignore public health rules | Editorial

Mary Mallon was such a wonderful cook that she found herself working for some of New York’s wealthiest families in the early 1900s.

But what her employers didn’t know is that every dish she made came with a dash of typhoid.

Mallon, herself, did not realize she was adding this deadly ingredient to her homemade recipes — especially her delicious peach ice cream.

And that was the problem.

She ended up becoming America’s most infamous superspreader, as an asymptomatic carrier of the bacterium that causes typhoid,Salmonella typhi.

Now that the world is in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s worth remembering Mallon’s story and learning from it.

She never showed symptoms of the disease, and never believed she carried it in her system even after lab tests proved it.

And because of this disbelief, she continued cooking for others — sometimes under an alias — until health officials forced her into quarantine from 1915 until her death in 1938.

She was responsible for spreading the disease to at least 50 people and killing three, earning her a significant place in medical history and the nickname Typhoid Mary.

Even though hers was a case of bacteria living in her gall bladder while COVID-19 is a temporary viral infection, we can still connect the dots between Mallon and the attitude of so many today.

For one, her story highlights how challenging it is to convince healthy citizens to do their part in slowing the spread of a highly infectious disease, and we are certainly seeing this now with the coronavirus outbreak.

If everyone would follow public health guidelines — wear masks, practice social distancing rules, and wash hands often — coronavirus numbers would not be soaring.

As it is, too many people, like Typhoid Mary, believe that since they don’t feel sick they can’t possibly be able to infect anyone else.

That’s just not true.

Some people may have the coronavirus and their symptoms may be so mild that they don’t realize they are contagious, or they may have the virus and not show symptoms at all.

In addition, symptoms of COVID-19 typically appear an average of 5-6 days after exposure, but it could take as long as two weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who don’t practice social distancing could be infecting many others before they get sick themselves.

Unfortunately, the resistance to public health recommendations has become ridiculously fierce.

People have turned wearing masks into a political issue when politics has nothing to do with it. Too few of us are voluntarily wearing masks in public, so Gov. Jay Inslee has made it a requirement statewide.

Consequently, many people freaked out.

At least two sheriffs in Western Washington publicly objected to the mandate. Lewis County Sheriff Robert Snaza told citizens, “Don’t be a sheep,” and Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer called the governor “an idiot,” saying Inslee was “overstepping his bounds, violating people’s constitutional rights.”

We know many Tri-Citians unfortunately agree with these sentiments. But wearing a mask doesn’t make you a “sheep.” It makes you someone who is considerate of others.

Initial surveys by the Benton Franklin Health District showed about 50 percent of Tri-Citians were wearing masks in certain locations, which is encouraging. But it’s not good enough.

Washington State Department of Health officials have said they want to see more people in the Tri-Cities area wearing masks as they consider Benton and Franklin county applications to move to Phase 2 for reopening more businesses and allowing small gatherings.

Benton, Franklin and Yakima counties are the only three in the state not yet approved to move out of Phase 1.

If we are going to reduce the number of coronavirus cases in the Tri-Cities, we can’t be like Typhoid Mary. She refused to believe what scientists told her and caused typhoid outbreaks whenever she started cooking.

Mallon lived over 100 years ago. What a shame we are seeing the same, deadly disbelief today.

This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 12:36 PM.