1) A Quick Historical footnote on Privacy and Pandemics: The 1916 Polio epidemic in Brooklyn hit immigrant Italian families hard. Their part of town was called "Pigtown." The were blamed for the spread of the disease.
2) The mortality rate in NY was about 20%. NYC reported a total of 8,927 cases of polio and 2,343 deaths. The city's hospitals were overwhelmed. Nationwide, the polio epidemic affected 27,000 people in 26 states and caused about 6,000 deaths. It died out in the winter months.
3) The names and addresses of confirmed polio cases were published each day in the papers. Their homes were placarded with a sign on the street door, in the entrance hall and on the apartment door. Afflicted children were separated from their parents and quarantined.
4) Sometimes you hope to learn from history, but more often we just seemed doomed to repeat it.
