In March 1900, Dr. Joseph James Kinyoun, a surgeon with the Marine
Hospital Service and the founder of the Hygienic Laboratory, which
became the National Institutes of Health, discovered bubonic plague in
San Francisco. His finding led to an immediate outcry from the governor,
local and state politicians, and the city's commercial interests. In the
hyper-sensationalized journalism of San Francisco's newspapers, Kinyoun
was ridiculed, leading to death threats and a $50,000 bounty on his
head. Eventually, California's quarantine caused an enormous uproar. By
the time a special federal commission produced a report (initially
withheld from the public, leading to charges of a coverup) that
vindicated Kinyoun, a deal had been brokered wherein the pioneering
doctor was removed from his post. This book tells a timely story about
yellow journalism, coverup, corruption, the struggle between science and
politics, and the consequences of blind denial of the truth.