John Snow Script:

1. John Snow, a name widely popularized in today’s youth through a fictional character.
 * Show just the name*
2. However, today we are not talking about the fictional character but the physician John Snow
who is just as heroic as the fictional, if not more.
 *Show a picture of John Snow*
 *Add details of Birth and Death (March 15, 1813- June 16, 1858) and location (Yorkshire,
England) during voice over*
3. He is considered the father of Contemporary Epidemiology, (a study that identifies factors,
underlying sources and methods for controlling diseases)
 *no voiceover for the definition*
4. He’s not only a major contributor to the development of Anesthesia but also studied Cholera
Outbreak in a very in-depth and systematic way over a long course of period.
5. His first encounter with Cholera was during his apprenticeship in 1831 during the 1st Cholera
outbreak, which had really fascinated him about how it’s spread and what’s the source of the
outbreak actually is.
6. In 1848-1849, around the 2nd outbreak of Cholera in England, he published his essay “On the
Mode of Communication of Cholera” and founded the London Epidemiological Society to help
the Government eradicate Cholera.
 *Insert pictures of both*
7. However, his germ theory of Cholera being a waterborne disease completely went against the
prevailing miasma theory that it’s airborne.
 * Connect germ theory with waterborne and miasma theory with airborne*
8. He was quite certain that the disease was not airborne because-
I. As a doctor, he did not contract Cholera himself even after regular exposure.
II. The infection affected the digestive system first so it had to be from consumption of some
sort of food or water the person ingested.
9. Moreover, indoor plumbing and water facilities were very rare in Soho, people had to gather
water from communal pumps/ town wells and dump waste in cesspools (open pits)/in the
River Thames which was connected to a few local pumps.
10. Hence, the chances of the water being contaminated and spreading the disease was quite high.
11. During the 3rd Cholera outbreak in 1854, he conducted two studies
12. The Broad Street Pump Study
13. He chose an area of 250 yards near the Broad Street, where over 500 fatal cases of Cholera
emerged in 10 days.
14. He targeted the Broad Street Pump, the primary source of water for that area.
15. He used geographical grids to chart deaths from the outbreak and investigated each case to
determine access to the pump water.
 *show pictures of mapping and grids and him visiting people*
16. Upon investigation, he successfully discovered that the people who contracted Cholera had
consumed the water and the people who did not contract Cholera had not.
17. He also discovered that the outbreak was caused by a woman who washed her Cholera affected
child’s soiled clothes and dumped the water into a leaky cesspool 3 feet away from the Broad
street pump.
 *Visualize the dumping, cesspool and contamination of the pump water*
18. He contacted the town officials to break the handle of the pump so nobody can consume the
water and miraculously the outbreak stopped.
 *show pictures*
19. The Grand Experiment
20. He targeted two private water companies this time.
I. The Southwark and Vauxhall Company - Drew water from sewage polluted inlets of the
River Thames
II. Lambeth Company - Drew water from the upper portion of the River Thames located far
from the town
 *show as marked location on map and also write as points for a clear understanding*
 (Voice over - *Names*, both of which drew from the River Thames but from two different
sections of it)
21. After gathering all statistical data, he again successfully pointed out that the company which
drew water from near the sewage was causing a comparatively higher amount of Cholera cases.
 * show graph where the southwark and vauxhall company will be at a higher point*
22. But even though his studies were successful it wasn’t until years after his death, in 1930, his
contribution in the field of epidemiology was properly recognized.
23. It is based on his study and methods of contact tracing that even the recent diseases such as
COVID-19 are being successfully combatted against by many countries such as Taiwan, South
Korea etc.
24. His selfless contributions have undoubtedly immortalized him as he left a lasting impact in
society that continues to adapt and improve with time and technology.