[HN Gopher] Mary Mallon
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Mary Mallon
Author : fortran77
Score : 36 points
Date : 2021-06-14 04:07 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| dsnuh wrote:
| I just wanted to use this as an opportunity to call out what I
| believe to be the finest song about Mary Mallon, by the finest
| musical act named after Mary Mallon...
|
| "Plagues and Bacon" by Hail Mary Mallon (Aesop Rock and Rob
| Sonic). Some NSFW lyrics. It's a jam.
|
| https://youtu.be/pNCM5CmxYSQ
| munk-a wrote:
| It might be a good idea to include her common alias (Typhoid
| Mary) somewhere in the title, considering that moniker is far
| more prominent than her legal name.
| wearywanderer wrote:
| I think her real name must be generally known and associated
| with her nickname. I've never gone out of my way to learn
| anything about her [before today] but I knew who this was about
| just from the title. I think I must have picked up this
| knowledge through general pop culture.
| fortran77 wrote:
| I thought it was an interesting story to review in the modern
| times of pandemics, quarantines, and panics.
| elihu wrote:
| ...on the other hand, the article notes that she hated being
| called that.
|
| Calling her by her real name is a bit more respectful, and when
| people click on the link without recognizing the name (as I
| did), it serves as a good reminder that she was a regular human
| being born with an unfortunate medical condition.
| stickfigure wrote:
| ...that she refused to acknowledge, causing (at least) tens
| of deaths. I don't think we are obligated to show excessive
| respect in this case.
| btilly wrote:
| In her defense, she was illiterate and was literally unable
| to understand the evidence against her. How did they know
| that she was giving people a disease that she never had?
| And how did they know that there was no way that they
| couldn't have caught it from elsewhere?
|
| How would you response if a government bureaucrat showed up
| and told YOU that you can't be allowed work because you
| have a unique condition never before seen by science? Would
| you simply believe them?
| QuercusMax wrote:
| I feel there is a direct link between Typhoid Mary and
| Covid-denying anti-maskers who cough in people's faces.
|
| If you're a selfish asshole, you may get an unfortunate
| nickname.
| enjeyw wrote:
| That was my instinctive reaction as well. However once I
| learnt that the concept of asymptomatic carriers wasn't
| even known at the time, and that she received negative
| tests for typhoid, I became less convinced that I would
| have behaved much differently.
| omegaworks wrote:
| Love that, instead of say paying her a small stipend, the state
| decided that all it needed to do was have her sign away her only
| means for obtaining a decent wage. Apparently no one in power
| believed public health was worth more than $50 a month.
|
| We truly have learned little as a society about how to deal with
| infectious disease on a wide scale. Today, several state
| governors are opting out of federal unemployment protection in an
| effort to force people back into labor that doesn't value their
| health and safety or pay enough to live decently[1].
|
| 1. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/558229-first-
| four-s...
| blowski wrote:
| Although the pandemic has been bad, the number of deaths is
| proportionally much lower than both the 1918 and 1957
| outbreaks. We still have a lot to learn, but government action
| in this pandemic has prevented a lot of deaths.
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(page generated 2021-06-14 23:01 UTC)