| Home > Resources > Leadership > Executive Summary > Case Studies Case Study 1900, San Francisco Business Leaders Hide Plague Focusing solely on short-term financial loss is an enormously attractive mistake that has the potential to compromise other strategic goals and have a counter-intuitive, negative impact on economic recovery. In early 20th century San Francisco, the business community worked to conceal the presence of bubonic plague in an effort to preserve the economy of the favored West Coast shipping and manufacturing hub. Word of the outbreak spread and began to hamper state commerce and encourage federal intervention. In response, state and local business leaders lobbied health officials for a quarantine of Chinatown, where cases had initially surfaced, as proof to outsiders that the matter was under control. Their myopic focus on short-term stability helped reinforce anti-Chinese sentiments, encourage Chinatown residents to hide the sick and dead, and prolong the epidemic. Reference Risse GB. The politics of fear: bubonic plague in San Francisco, California, 1900. In New Countries and Old Medicine. Bryder L & Dow DA, eds. Aukland, New Zealand: Pyramid Press; 1995:1-19. |
