Boom! The Bomb Goes Off - Part Two.

Monday 25th July 1955. At least sixteen British and Irish national newspapers cover the RFH press conference from the day before. A similar number of regional papers also feature the story. The news appears in Indian, Canadian and Australian papers later in the week. It's now a global story.

The Manchester Guardian (soon to drop the ‘Manchester’), Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Worker, News Chronicle, Daily Herald, Irish Times, Western Mail and Daily Express all carry the story on their front pages.

The Express, the paper with that “oblique” first reference to the RFH outbreak, names the young American woman that it featured on its cover (clue and pun in one) six days earlier as the first RFH staff member to fall ill: 

“First member of staff to be taken ill was Miss Phoebe Cover”.

The Guardian, Daily Mirror and News Chronicle all also refer to the first staff member to fall ill as an American social worker, albeit without providing a name. The Express goes on to say that the “epidemic first broke out about 10 days ago when a patient who developed it was transferred to an isolation unit.”

However, the News Chronicle says: “The epidemic started about three weeks ago with a patient and an American woman social service worker.”. The Guardian also goes with three weeks, but refers to an “outbreak” rather than an epidemic:

“The outbreak started three weeks ago when an American social service worker contracted the illness.”

On the other hand, the Daily Mail asks “How did the outbreak start? No carrier has been traced.”.

The Telegraph, perhaps, goes into a little more detail…

Gordon Heppell, secretary of the board of Governors of the RFH group is quoted in the Irish Times as expecting that "...the hospital will be closed for a fortnight at least.".

By the late afternoon of the 25th, the London evening papers were beginning to circulate. The Star reported that other hospitals in the RFH group were now closed to new admissions:

"The fifth hospital to be affected is the Liverpool-road, Islington, branch, where there are 85 patients apart from the staff. Earlier it was reported that the Royal Free, Grays Inn-road, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the Hampstead General and Lawn-road had been closed.".

The Evening News also reports on the closure of the Liverpool Road branch but ends its front page report with:

"Every member of the nursing staff is wearing a linen mask.".

Maybe the reason why so few inpatients fell ill, perhaps?