:16:01
- Precautionary, but for what?
- It's possible the dead man
may have had some disease...
:16:05
I don't have to take
one of those shots.
:16:08
I can quarantine you
for 10 days.
:16:12
Hold still or this is going to hurt.
:16:17
- Aside from isolated
cases in the past 20 years...
- I'll see you, Murph.
:16:19
There's been at least
one major outbreak.
:16:22
In November of 1924,
in Los Angeles, California...
:16:25
a woman died of what was thought
to be pneumonia.
:16:28
Thirty-two people had
had contact with her...
:16:30
and within four days, before the disease
could be correctly diagnosed and contained...
:16:34
twenty-six of them had died,
and they died suddenly, violently and horribly.
:16:38
The disease was finally found
to be pneumonic plague.
:16:42
Pneumonic plague is
the pulmonary form of bubonic...
:16:44
the black death
of the Middle Ages...
:16:46
- and its death incidence is practically 100%.
- Who'd you say he was?
:16:49
I'm Dr. Reed of the United States
Public Health Service...
:16:52
and one of the jobs of my department
is to keep plague out of this country.
:16:55
Sit down. Sit down.
Don't let me interrupt you.
:16:57
Speak to somebody about it, will you, please?
Come on, Mary.
:17:00
Has Dr. Reed filled you in on this?
Have you finished, Doctor?
:17:03
Well there's not much more,
Mr. Mayor.
:17:05
Bubonic plague, as you probably know,
is spread by the rat flea...
:17:08
which is why we watch
all ships and ports.
:17:11
Pneumonic, on the contrary,
can be spread like a common cold...
:17:15
on the breath, sneezes
or sputum of its victims.
:17:17
Very interesting, but I don't quite see why
we were called into this.
:17:20
Because this morning,
right here in the city...
:17:22
your police found the body of a man
who was infected with this disease.
:17:25
Well, Dan, what about it?
:17:27
- Our reports show the man died
with two bullet wounds.
- He did. Heart and lungs.
:17:31
- Death was probably instantaneous. Right, Tom?
- Yes, sir.
:17:33
- We had a police surgeon...
- Regardless of what the police surgeon said...
:17:36
he would have died
within 12 hours.
:17:38
- But what he did die of was two bullet holes.
- He had pneumonic plague.
:17:40
- But he died of...
- Drop it, Tom.
:17:42
- Dr. Mackey?
- As you know, Mr. Mayor, I wasn't there.
:17:46
Ben was there when the body was brought in,
but I can go now and check.
:17:49
- I had the body destroyed.
- You had it destroyed?
:17:51
It was the prime source of contamination.
I had Ben cremate it.
:17:54
I see.
What else have you done, Mackey?
:17:56
Everyone who came in contact
with the body has been inoculated...
:17:59
everyone we know of...
with serum and streptomycin.