The Health Officer Called It 'Varioloid.' An Everett Doctor Called It Smallpox.
A farmer who caught the disease while working in Snohomish is the test case in a quiet jurisdictional war — the town's disgraced former health officer against a doctor hired by the county to cover whatever the local authorities won't.
SNOHOMISH, Sept. 2. — [Special.] — The supposed varioloid patient, Frank Warner, two and one-half miles south of Snohomish, turns out to have smallpox, though the case is light. Dr. McCready, Snohomish's disgraced ex-health officer, called it varioloid, but Dr. Harris, of Everett, found that the disease was really smallpox. Warner is 35 years old, a farmer, and contracted the disease in Snohomish, where he was working. Dr. Harris has been engaged by the county commissioners to look after smallpox cases outside the jurisdiction of health officers.
“Dr. McCready, Snohomish's disgraced ex-health officer, called it varioloid, but Dr. Harris, of Everett, found that the disease was really smallpox.”
A diagnosis downgraded by the local official who had already lost his credibility, corrected only when the county hired its own doctor to work around the town's health authority. The disease name has changed since 1892; the jurisdictional standoff between a municipality and a county health authority has not. Frank Warner was a working farmer exposed on the job — the same pattern public-health reporting tracks today.
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