David Randall is a senior reporter at Reuters and author of the New York Times bestseller "Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague."
It is the story of how the bubonic plague came to San Francisco in 1900 and how, in the face of inaction and obfuscation from local government, press, railroad barons, etc., one federal health officer and his team saved the city and contained the spread of the disease.
The denial and feet-dragging of those in power when confronted with the plague resonates with our current situation, as does the racism and xenophobia that blossomed with its spread.
