Name _______________
NOVA: The Most Dangerous Woman in America
Part 1: Focus Questions
As you watch this NOVA episode, follow along and answer these questions.
1. Where were typhoid cases normally concentrated?
2. How is typhoid spread?
3. Who were the “usual suspects” in typhoid outbreaks?
4. How were the exposures investigated?
5. What is a “healthy carrier?”
6. Why have courts almost always sided with public health departments in cases like
this?
7. Why was Mary Mallon so determined to be a cook? Why not find another job?
Part 2: Reflection Questions
Take notes during the video and use them to answer the following questions. These
answers should be about a paragraph each.
1. How did preconceived notions and negative stereotypes about the poor & immigrants
affect how Mary Mallon was treated?
2. Why do you think Mary Mallon was so adamant that she was not spreading typhoid?
3. Knowing what you do about Mary Mallon’s reported temperament, how would you
have handled her situation?
4. Mary Mallon was confined because as a healthy carrier of typhoid she could transmit
the disease to others, yet she continued to work in a job in which transmission was likely.
Did public health officials make the right decision when they removed her from her job?
Why or why not? What are the rights and responsibilities of an individual who can
transmit a disease? What are the rights and responsibilities of the society in which the
individual lives?