From Harper's Magazine--Yellow Fever strikes. I t was summer when the dying started. The source outright lied, insisting there was no problem and left quarantine. Some authorities failed to report the disease or did not recognize the problem until it was too late. It was contagious. It was not contagious. Many people hardly knew they had been infected while fifteen percent of the infected died horrible deaths, insane with fever, spewing black vomit and gasping for breath.  The immigrant poor, stuffed twelve or more to a room, suffered disproportionately. Dozens of doctors and nurses died while tending the sick. Cemeteries and grave diggers would have been overwhelmed if coffins had not been in short supply. Physicians tried all manner of treatments. Nothing worked. Masks and quarantine proved to be no defense at all. Businesses closed so the remaining healthy population ran short of supplies. Banks closed, so the living had no money. News outlets ceased operatin...