The Epidemic of Yellow Jack

Note: As this 2014 review proves, I was into infectious disease books before the pandemic. But who am I kidding? I’m hardly the only plague buff around, hardcore readers are always diving into The Plague (Albert Camus) or The Journal of the Plague Year (Daniel Defoe).

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History - Molly Caldwell Crosby

The first third of this book describes the loss of life and economic impact of the Yellow Fever (YF) epidemic in the US in 1878. The remaining part of the book tells about the heroic efforts of scientists and research volunteers to discover the cause of YF and develop a safe and effective vaccine.

Crosby reports that the YF epidemic in the summer of 1878 devastated two major cities on the Mississippi River. In what was surely an undercount, authorities in New Orleans reported "not less than 4,600" dead. Noting the raging epidemic, about 25,000 residents that could afford it fled Memphis in late July. Between August and October of 1878, the disease killed more than 5,000 people in that city. Historians and epidemiologists estimate as many as 20,000 people died in the Mississippi River Valley. Crosby relates grisly details of YF’s symptoms and course (20 to 50% of infected persons who develop severe disease will die). She also tells inspiring tales of the heroism of caregivers.

The reputation of Memphis suffered so much that it never recovered economically so that is why Atlanta is the financial capital of the South today. In the aftermath, John Woodworth, the federal surgeon general, said “Yellow fever should be dealt with as an enemy which imperils life and cripples commerce and industry. To no other great nation of the earth is yellow fever so calamitous as to the United States of America.”

In a time when the federal government provided neither disaster relief nor research funding, President Hayes authorized the Army to fund research to discover the vector of YF and the cure. The Yellow Fever Commission headed by Dr. Walter Reed determined the vector. Scientists worked out a viable vaccine shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Again Crosby relates stories of the heroism of the scientists, many of whom died in their search to determine the vector. Crosby also tells of human subjects, some of whom granted their informed consent, for the first time in history and decades before obtaining it was required of researchers. The story of Clara Maass, who gave her life to extend knowledge, was new to me.

Crosby gives some attention to racial disparities during the epidemic. She is more informative on the partisan divides about lockdowns/quarantines that will seem bitterly familiar to us post-moderns. The book ends on a scary note, as if, in 2022, a virus that we already have a vaccine for could frighten us more than our mask-slacking, anti-vaks neighbors. 

As if. 

All in all, I think this is worth-while book for readers into popular history about plagues.