Patient Zero - Updated
The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds—Patient Zero. This hour, Radiolab hunts for Patient Zeroes of all kinds and considers the course of an ongoing outbreak.
We start with the story of perhaps the most iconic Patient Zero of all time: Typhoid Mary. Then, we dive into a molecular detective story to pinpoint the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and we re-imagine the moment the virus that caused the global pandemic sprang to life. After that, we update the show with a quick look at the very current Ebola outbreak in west Africa. In the end, we're left wondering if you can trace the spread of an idea the way you can trace the spread of a disease and find ourselves faced with competing claims about the origin of the high five.
- Duration
- 1h 12m
- Broadcast on
- 13 Nov 2014
- Audio Format
- other
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The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds—Patient Zero. This hour, Radiolab hunts for Patient Zeroes of all kinds and considers the course of an ongoing outbreak.
We start with the story of perhaps the most iconic Patient Zero of all time: Typhoid Mary. Then, we dive into a molecular detective story to pinpoint the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and we re-imagine the moment the virus that caused the global pandemic sprang to life. After that, we update the show with a quick look at the very current Ebola outbreak in west Africa. In the end, we're left wondering if you can trace the spread of an idea the way you can trace the spread of a disease and find ourselves faced with competing claims about the origin of the high five.
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WNYC Studios is supported by ODU. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. ODU solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. ODU is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out ODU at ODOO.com. That's ODOO.com. Okay, today we are re-podcasting a show with something extra, an update. This show, which we did a couple years back, is called Patient Zero, which sort of took a look at the origins of things, not surprisingly a disease, but also other things too. And, you know, you hear all that. But I wanted to step in and say that in the middle of the show, we're going to slip from looking back at a disease that started away a long time ago to examining a disease that, you know, as I speak, this is happening right now. Our senior editor, Storm Wheeler, will bring you that. In the meantime, here's the show. Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC. Yeah, and NPR. So, if we said where we are, I'm on tape yet? Starting us off today are our producers, Lynn Levy and Sean Cole. Very pretty day to be on an abandoned island where victims of contagious disease were quarantined, and one in particular who lived here, died here, never believing that she was, in fact, sick and dangerous. So, this is a story that begins when? Well, it's actually, it starts in 1906, and it doesn't start on the island. It starts in Oyster Bay. Oh, nice neighbor. Very nice. There was this one rich family on vacation there. And their daughter gets sick. She gets sick first. This is Judy Levitt. I am a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin. And she wrote a book about this story. So, basically the girl, the daughter, has a fever. Then her sister comes down with it, and then her mom, and a maid. About six out of eleven in the family get sick. And with this disease, the fever is just the first part of it. Both diarrhea or constipation are reported, so it can go either way, I guess. What is it? Typhoid. Hmm. And they couldn't figure out what had caused the disease. So, they called in this sanitary engineer named George Soper. With the public health department, he was a go-to guy for outbreaks like this. Back then, the department of public health was thinking, you know, you get sick because of something dirty near you. In the well or in the pipes? Yeah, so he looks into all of that. Did a whole test on the house and the water and everything couldn't find anything. And so he starts talking to the family. And he started quizzing them all. Eventually, he builds up this whole picture of several outbreaks going back years. 1900. A New York family had a house for the song 1902. Dark Harbor, 1904. Seven cases.
Transcription truncated.
The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds—Patient Zero. This hour, Radiolab hunts for Patient Zeroes of all kinds and considers the course of an ongoing outbreak.
We start with the story of perhaps the most iconic Patient Zero of all time: Typhoid Mary. Then, we dive into a molecular detective story to pinpoint the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and we re-imagine the moment the virus that caused the global pandemic sprang to life. After that, we update the show with a quick look at the very current Ebola outbreak in west Africa. In the end, we're left wondering if you can trace the spread of an idea the way you can trace the spread of a disease and find ourselves faced with competing claims about the origin of the high five.