Black Death at the Golden Gate
David Randall
Black Death at the Golden Gate:
The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague
(W. W. Norton & Company, 2019)
When an infectious disease rears its ugly head, misinformation spreads, prejudice is inflamed, and people panic. Such was the case in San Francisco in 1900, sparked by the death of Chinese immigrant Wong Chut King. A city health officer noticed a swollen black lymph node on King’s groin. This was a sign of the bubonic plague that had already killed ten million worldwide. Powerful constituencies that did not want the bad publicity of a quarantined city fought against logical public health decisions. Enter federal health officer Rupert Blue, a hero with a valiant mission to understand and contain the disease.
11:30 AM | Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing at Beebe Healthcare
David K. Randall, a senior reporter for Reuters and a contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, and Psychology Today, is the New York Times bestselling author of Dreamland and The King and Queen of Malibu.