

SARS and other pandemics are spread by modern-day Typhoid Marys - Anon84
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/superspreaders_of_disease_sars_and_other_pandemics_are_spread_by_modern.single.html

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jlgreco
Mary Mallon wasn't merely an asymptomatic carrier. She was informed of what
she was, and refused to listen. As a result she was held in isolation for
three years, but eventually released after promising to give up being a cook.
Five years later, after another series of outbreaks, and several deaths, it
was discovered that she had changed her name and was once again working as a
cook. She was imprisoned/quarantined for a second time, that time for the rest
of her life. It probably is not very nice to call uninformed asymptomatic
carriers 'Typhoid Mary's. ;)

~~~
tomjen3
Reading it that way she sounds like an asshole, but what job, other than being
a cook, could she even get?

~~~
jlgreco
After being released she got a job doing laundry. Apparently the pay was less
than she was used to, so she started cooking again.

I am conflicted on whether I would call her an asshole or not. On one hand it
seems she really was lacking malicious intent and simply didn't believe
everyone who told her she was hurting people. On the other hand, she _really
should have_ believed them. She should have believed them, or at least
cooperated with them the first time they tracked her down, and the second time
they tracked her down it _really_ should have sunk in. So is it a case of
_"sufficiently advanced incompetence"_ being indistinguishable from malice?
People were dying because of her deliberate actions, so does it really matter
if she didn't intend it?

I think it's a fairly complex case.

------
Volpe
> but in 2003 it turned into a global outbreak that infected 8,098

You'd think it was more than that given the media outcry at the time. 8,000
out of ~6.8 billion is a complete nothing... more people probably died in car
accidents in the same time period.

~~~
gojomo
Seasonal flu is implicated in anywhere from 3k to 49k deaths per year in the
US alone (depending on how rough the seasonal variant is). So 774 worldwide
from SARS isn't much of a 'pandemic' to fear.

If over 7k people had confirmed SARS and survived, many more probably had mild
cases that were never disambiguated from other seasonal respiratory illnesses.
Perhaps they 'superspread' milder viral variants which spoiled the 'herd' for
nastier variants.

~~~
bodyfour
> many more probably had mild cases that were never disambiguated from other
> seasonal respiratory illnesses

It's certainly possible that some people got "low-grade" or even asymptomatic
SARS. However, given how it spread like wildfire through exposed populations
(such as health-care workers) it does seem that many people were susceptible
to the virus and developed severe symptoms when exposed.

Therefore it seems unlikely that antibodies built up in the "herd" had much to
do with the pandemic ending. The credit goes to the massive public health
response, especially isolating anybody with suspected contact. SARS had all
the components needed for a _bad_ pandemic; they probably saved tens of
millions of lives.

------
drucken
Epidemiologists only now investigating the Pareto Principle?

