Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Anxieties about cholera’s potential arrival in New York City escalated after news arrived in mid-June that the pandemic had reached Canada. A couple of weeks later, cholera cases began to appear, but municipal officials tried to stifle the information and stave off panic. They failed. By the second week of July, the city appeared to be a ghost town, although an outbreak had yet to reach its apex. That happened after heavy rains washed Vibrio into multiple water sources. Prior to the peak on July 21, the press and affluent people who stayed generally dismissed cholera, claiming it was doing exactly what had been predicted. While the most appalling death toll was recorded in the Bellevue facilities, it increasingly became clear that affluent and well-known people would suffer too.</jats:p>