Episode Details

Like many infections COVID-19 can produce mild symptoms or none at all in some people, meaning they are not aware they are infected and can spread the virus without realising. COVID-19 may therefore be prone to the phenomenon of the ‘super-spreader’. In this podcast, Dr Raj Persaud talks to Dr Susan Campbell Bartoletti about Mary Mallon, the subject of her recent book ‘Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America’. Mallon was a healthy carrier of typhoid fever at the turn of the 20th century who resisted public health officials’ attempts to contain her. Can the first documented ‘super-spreader’ in history reveal true causes of modern pandemics?