1900

Outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco’s Chinatown district (first case 6 March) with death of Wong Chut King, leading to quarantine (which exempted white-owned businesses), opposed by Chinese as act of racial bias, not public health, and led to rioting. Chinese denied existence of plague, strongly opposed to autopsy and the needle (the risky Haffkine vaccine), etc. (Chase). June 14: California Governor Henry Gage denied plague, his manifesto signed by San Francisco’s elite, including the deans of three medical schools (70). Gage dreamed up a plague conspiracy theory which he took to “new and gothic heights” – Federal Quarantine Officer Joseph Kinyoun imported plague bacillus and spread them intentionally (79-80). In 1901, Surgeon General Wyman sent “independent experts” (Simon Flexner, Frederic Novy, Lewellys Barker) to San Fran; they confirmed existence of plague (Randall, 81-84). Following earthquake of 18 April 1906, plague returned, as did Rupert Blue in 1907. Only in 1907 “did the precise role of fleas start to emerge from the shadows” (161) along with understanding that 2% infection rate among rats was “the danger zone” (173, 175). Between 1900 and 1909, San Francisco had 280 confirmed cases and 172 deaths from plague (211) and a total kill of over 2 million rats, 5 times the human population of the city (195). Laboratory confirmation of plague bacilli made by bacteriologist Joseph Kinyoun, banished to the quarantine station at Angel Island by Marine Hospital Service head Walter Wyman, who resented Kinyoun’s laboratory skills and reputation, the city was in denial, even after appearance of additional cases, until Wm. Randolph Hearst published a special edition of the New York Journal that sounded the alarm, followed by sending telegrams to health officers of every major city in the country (Randall, 9-12, 59ff.) Kinyoun’s findings confirmed in 1901 by Commission (Simon Flexner, Frederick Noy, and Lewellys Barker), but Commission report suppressed by Marine Hospital Service head Wyman, after delegation of San Francisco power brokers travel to Washington and made “an infamous compact” with Wyman, i.e., that Commission report would be withheld from public documenting existence of plague in San Francisco if San Francisco and the state agreed to finance a sanitary campaign in Chinatown to identify and treat plague victims, etc. But the report leaked from Marine Hospital Service to Occidental Medical Times, which reprinted the report in full, with the secret meeting revealed by the Sacramento Bee. Wyman was thereupon denounced while Kinyoun was celebrated by the medical press. But Wyman refused to apologize and sent Kinyoun packing to Detroit (Randall, 110-112). Rupert Blue arrives in San Francisco in early 1903, initially as Joseph White’s deputy, taking over for him by June, and finally getting plague under control by focusing on rats and their fleas, not the sanitary habits of the Chinese. He returned to San Francisco immediately after the earthquake of April 1906, and again with a team of 12 doctors in September 1907, after reappearance of plague throughout the city (except for Chinatown) in late May 1907. On arrival, Blue set about eliminating rats and their fleas from the entire city. “The virus festered in areas that afforded food and shelter to rats and their fleas, he believed, and not because of any inherent flaws in a victim’s virtue or race” (Randall, 188; cf. 135, 198-199). Despite Rupert’s heroic efforts – his corps removed 13k rats a day – the situation became critical by late summer, 1907, when ratio of infected rats to total caught each week was 1.5%, with 2% the point of epidemic explosion that would require city-wide quarantine (199). Apathy finally vanished and the city went into high gear to exterminate rats following Blue’s speech to city leaders in January 1908. After rat eradication campaign that killed over two million rats, Blue and Wyman declared San Francisco a safe port in November 1908, but infected squirrels continued to cause plague in East Bay hills (212ff ). Blue appointed head of U.S. Public Health Service in 1912, then off to New Orleans in July 1914 to lead team managing outbreak of plague, dispatching 250 rat catchers that killed and autopsied nearly 359,999 rats (Randall, 225ff).