The Ballad of Typhoid Mary

A song about one of the first victims of Medical Tyranny

There are many songs about Mary Mallon (aka “Typhoid Mary”) but none I believe who picture her as a victim of a witch hunt on the part of the public health authorities of the time.

Mary was deemed an “asymptomatic carrier” and eventually locked up on a hospital ward for over 30 years.

The public still believes she was a “superspreader,” responsible for the death of people who died of Typhoid Fever who came in contact with her while she was employed as a cook.

Ironically 1906, the same year they began to persecute Mary, was the same year Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was published, exposing unsanitary practices in the meatpacking industry.

Environmental factors such as unsanitary food and poor dietary choices as well as sub-standard sanitation in general were never considered as a possibility that the widespread outbreaks of diseases such as Typhoid, Cholera, Influenza, etc. were the result of these other factors.

Nor was the low level standard of care provided by the medical profession acknowledged which relied all too often on dubious pharmaceutical products often containing mercury and arsenic.

Instead it was Pasteur’s “germ theory” that ruled the day just as viral outbreaks are considered the source of modern-day epidemics.

Check out my music video THE BALLAD OF TYPHOID MARY. To create the music videos I edited still photos and various silent movies in the public domain.