Summary of Ch.1

In chapter 1 of "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell explains and examines the very big STD problem that occurred in Baltimore Maryland during the mid 1990s. There is a very big syphilis outbreak and sociologists explained that the statistics on a scale were on a graph and at one point went from being flat lined to a right angle because of the giant increase in the 90s.

This all started because of the bad drug epidemic that Baltimore was having. What is an epidemic you’re probably wondering? It is a function of people who transmit infections agents, the agents itself and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating. People from all over the rough neighborhoods were all doing huge amounts of cocaine and that then lead to bad and risky behavior. That lead to the start of the spread of syphilis, because everyone would meet up then they took the drugs back to their bad neighborhoods from wherever they came from and then after awhile the spreading just multiplied in bunches.

Another example that is listed is the lack of medical treatment had a major impact on the spread of it. Because there was no medical help due to the budget cut in clinics that forced everyone spread the disease even more.

The last example that Malcom Gladwell wrote about is when one of the local projects went down, the infected people were forced out and had to move away. But along with them came the same bad habits and the drugs and syphilis that they carried. So again this rule shows that it doesn’t take long nor is it impossible to keep such a trend from happening repeatedly.

After all of these examples we have come to the conclusion that there is more than one way to tip an epidemic. It really all just depends on what the trendy way of spreading something good or bad is working at the time.