It's 1976 - thousands of US Veterans in the American Foreign Legion meet up in Philly for a few days of meetings and camaraderie (and we assume not talking about trauma because it was the 70s). Staying at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, hundreds of men would get sick when they returned home, and over 30 would be dead in the next few days. What caused the Legionnaires (and some people who just walked by the hotel) to get sick? Send in the CDC (Rest in Power), shock your hot tub, and throw away your humidifiers for this medical mystery!
It's 1976 - thousands of US Veterans in the American Foreign Legion meet up in Philly for a few days of meetings and camaraderie (and we assume not talking about trauma because it was the 70s).
Staying at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, hundreds of men would get sick when they returned home, and over 30 would be dead in the next few days.
What caused the Legionnaires (and some people who just walked by the hotel) to get sick? Send in the CDC (Rest in Power), shock your hot tub, and throw away your humidifiers for this medical mystery!
Forensic Files - Season 1, Episode 7 - Legionnaires' Disease - Full Episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5fh4opyUU8
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Taylor: I'm looking at the most expensive house in America
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA096.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you. Hello. Hello, Taylor, how are you?
>> Taylor: I am doing well, how are you?
>> Farz: I'm good. I'm just looking at the most expensive house in America and is it the.
>> Taylor: Oh, it's an Aspen.
>> Farz: You said it's an Aspen. Yeah.
>> Taylor: Did you ever see the Queen of Versailles? That. Yeah, that lady. I, I liked her. I thought she was kind of fun.
>> Farz: It is, it is definitely a Florida energy.
>> Taylor: Yes, exactly, exactly.
>> Farz: Sure what she's bringing to the table. Cool.
Doomed to Fail brings you histories, notorious disasters and epic failures
Do you want to introduce us?
>> Taylor: Yeah. Hi everyone. Welcome to Doomed to Fail. We bring you histories, notorious disasters and epic failures. And I'm Taylor, joined by Fars.
>> Farz: I am here and we are going to give you another riveting episode, I think. Hopefully. Hopefully. So Taylor, who goes first today?
>> Taylor: I do. Let me open up my. I'm opening up my Diet Coke support into my McDonald's Diet Coke because I drink all of my McDonald's Diet Coke so I gotta add more health.
>> Farz: It does feel better drinking out of McDonald's.
>> Taylor: I know.
>> Farz: Paper cup for some reason.
>> Taylor: I mean, I'm trying. I have, I have a caffeine one and a no caffeine one. So not crazy. I saw a thing where a doc, a doctor on Instagram was like, I drink a lot of Diet Coke and I don't talk about it, but I have a disease where my body doesn't create its own Diet Coke so I have to supplement. And I laughed.
>> Farz: I do get told quite a bit that I should cut back my Diet.
>> Taylor: Coke intake, tell people to mind their own g****** business.
>> Farz: You hear that Rachel? She's gonna, she's actually. You can hear her saying what on the other side of the door gonna hear this and be like, what the h*** is going on?
>> Taylor: Oh my God, my clock. That has a quote from a book in it. Has a quote right now from Gerald Game. Did you see Gerald Game? Yeah, that's the one. That's the book where my mom read it when I was like 10 and she told me everything about it and I was so scared to sleep in the dark for so long. And we talk about it all the time how she ruined my life because I was like, who tells their 10 year old daughter?
>> Farz: I know, I was, I was like the entire setup is not 10 year old appropriate, much less the rest of it?
>> Taylor: A thousand percent. Like none of it is appropriate for children.
>> Farz: But that's why you have such a deep affinity and love towards Stephen King in horror.
>> Taylor: It is. And my grandma, when my mom was a baby, my grandma took her to the theater. She wanted to see Psycho. So my mom was there as a baby. So it just explains a lot.
>> Farz: There you go.
>> Taylor: Yeah, it's genetic. Okay, cool. So you ready?
>> Farz: Yes.
Taylor: Legionnaires disease is a respiratory disease that affects veterans
>> Taylor: I have a disease to tell you about. Florence was sick this week, but I thought about this before this. It just kind of like this has been in the news. So I wanted to dig in and learn a little bit more. This is a disease that's probably older than we know it as, but it wasn't named until the 1970s.
>> Farz: Measles.
>> Taylor: No. It is a respiratory disease and it happened to a very specific population of US Army, Navy, Air Force, whatever, veterans. Can you think of? No. It is Legionnaires disease.
>> Farz: No way. Okay.
>> Taylor: Have you heard of it?
>> Farz: I have. It sounds almost like fancy and romantic because I. I can picture like a French Legionnaire, you know, that is.
>> Taylor: Okay. Exactly. So I was thinking, like, what? A legionnaire. Which I will tell you what that is, but I only. First thing that comes to mind is a French one.
>> Farz: Yeah. Well, because of French Foreign Legion, they're called legionnaires.
>> Taylor: Right. But this is the American Legion. They're also called legionnaires.
>> Farz: Oh, my God. Really?
>> Taylor: That's what. That's what. I mean, it's not. But it was started in France. I'm gonna tell you all about that.
>> Farz: All right.
>> Taylor: Okay. So. Oh, and I watched a Forensic Files. It's Forensic Files, Season 1, Episode 7 on Legionnaires Disease. If you want to watch that. I've watched it before. You may watch it again. It's delightful.
>> Farz: Taylor. For the first time in any of my researching history, I did watch a Forensic Files for my episode.
>> Taylor: Really?
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: That's so cool.
>> Farz: Serendipity.
>> Taylor: Gross.
This year is the bicentennial centennial of the United States
So picture it. We're in Philadelphia. It is July 1776. It is the bicentennial centennial, which we are now at the. Whatever you call it. So I feel like the bicentennial was a huge freaking deal for people because the 200 year anniversary of the United States.
>> Farz: Yeah, we're 50.
>> Taylor: Yeah. This year I just, like, could not care less.
>> Farz: Is it Quinton Sennial?
>> Taylor: I have no idea. I mean, I know why I don't care, but like, also, look at us. So it's 50 years ago right now. Ish. It's in Philly. It's hot. I know I've mentioned this before, but the average temperature in Philadelphia in the 1700s and the 1900s and always during July is like high 80s, low, low 90s, which is awful. And especially if you're writing the Declaration of Independence wearing an old timey outfit, you're going to be just so hot and sweaty.
>> Farz: Yeah, of course.
>> Taylor: I just like wonder how much of the. How much of it is written was written real f****** fast because they were like, we're going to suffocate in here, you guys.
>> Farz: No, I think you get used to it. I think you, you're like, this is life. Life is sweaty and smelly and everybody stinks.
>> Taylor: God, it seems so terrible. Terrible. Anyway, 200 years later, we're back in Philly. There's a fair amount of stuff going on, so I'll mention these things and then I'll bring them back later. But it's hot. There is a garbage strike, which is very European of them. So there's garbage everywhere. There are possible terrorist threats to the city because it's the 70s and there's terrorist threats everywhere. And there are a lot of sex workers in town, which, like, there usually are. But like, this is something to bring up that, like, they're active because there's a lot of conventions happening.
>> Farz: Yeah, of course.
>> Taylor: Just FYI. So anywhere, like about 4,000 legionnaires, again, I'll tell you what they are in a second, who are veterans from the American Foreign Legion are in town for their annual meeting. They stay at the Belford Stratford Hotel in downtown. In downtown Philly, which has been having some air conditioning issues, so some problems with the ac. They stay there for three days. It's a Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They leave on Saturday. Eight days later, two of them are dead. In total, about 31 of them are going to die and hundreds are going to get sick. People who were in the hotel, people who walked by the hotel got sick. None of the hotel workers got sick. It was like a super weird mystery of what happened. So I'm gonna tell you what happened.
>> Farz: Please.
Have you listened to Dan's blueprint for Armageddon? Of course. If you have eight hours to spare, go listen to Blueprint Armageddon
>> Taylor: Okay, so what is a legionnaire? Good question. That you kind of asked earlier. It started. So World War I is over. It is 1919. It's been awful. Have you listened to Dan's blueprint for Armageddon?
>> Farz: Of course.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God. When it ended, you know how he ends with that, like, boom. I cried. I just like started sobbing. Like, absolutely unbelievable. World War I, terrible. Thank you, Taylor, for that. You welcome. Oh, my God, I'm so glad that I'm here.
>> Farz: We should.
>> Taylor: The.
>> Farz: The re. I think part of that emotion and sentiment is because he, like, it's all chrono. I don't actually know if it's all chronological, but like, I think in those episodes he set it up chronologically to lead into World War II and then the atomic bomb and everything else. And so because of that, it was very like you. He sets it up so well what's coming down the pipe. And it just gets you so excited about it.
>> Taylor: Oh my God, it's incredible. Incredible. If you have eight hours to spare, go listen to Blueprint Armageddon by Dan Carlin.
>> Farz: I like how in last podcast when Henry was talking about listening to Dan Carlin, he's like, I'll just like wake up at the end of his episode. And it's like, why am I. Why have I walked in New Jersey from la? So true.
>> Taylor: Totally.
The American Foreign Legion was founded after World War II to improve morale
So now that the war is over, there's a bunch of men who are still stuck in France. Like a bunch of like, the war technically ended, but there's like cleanup to do and you're kind of hanging out, but you really want to go home. And morale is like falling really quickly. Like the money is there to get you there. The money is not really there to bring you home. All the things are happening. So during this waiting period, some people decided start an organization to give them something to do. So veterans from all types of the US Service get together and. And can. Can join this group. The person whose idea was is Teddy Roosevelt Jr. Who is Teddy Roosevelt son. And I just want to like, digress and talk a little bit about TR JR because he's exactly as weird as you want him to be. Like, there's a picture of him with a giant bird on his Wikipedia page. He looks crazy, but like super duper fun. And of course he's, you know, TR son. So what a life. He. So he has the idea to like, improve morale. They're going to do it later on. TR jr, this is just again, an aside. He joins the New York State Assembly. He becomes the Governor General of the Philippines, which is a job that Taft had had as well. He becomes a governor of Puerto Rico. Then he becomes the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, just like TR and FDR were. Then he goes back into World War II. Him and Patton got in a fight because Patton didn't like the way that wore his uniform. And then TR JR was the oldest person to storm the beach in normandy in his 50s. Isn't that fun?
>> Farz: Seems. That seems appropriate.
>> Taylor: He like, didn't have to, but he wanted to and he did anyway. Which is exactly. It's exactly what.
>> Farz: It's exactly what his dad would have done.
>> Taylor: Probably what his dad would have done. Yeah. His son also stormed the Omaha beach the same day. And T.R. jr. Died in his sleep in France on July 12, 1944. He was 56. I thought that was fun. Just fun to learn about him. Another person who was instrumental in starting the American Foreign Legion is John J. Pershing, who I don't know anything about, but remember, we used to work by Pershing Square after him.
>> Farz: Oh, really? Okay. I didn't know that.
>> Taylor: Yeah. He's a World War I general that we can learn more about later, but that's that. The first meeting of the American Foreign Legion was in Paris. So it does. That's why it sounds so French. And they went back to the US and divided up into states. So states were able to do whatever they wanted, kind of, and have their own set of guiding rules, which means some states were allowed to, like, segregate other. Some states. Well, there is a story for another time of a time when legionnaires and union people got into a fight and it is called a massacre. People died. So lots of stuff. We can talk about that later. But that's exactly essentially who they are. They did things like help pass the GI Bill. They are continually fighting for veterans rights, trying to get money into the va and they wear cute little hats.
>> Farz: It's an association. It's an association of former military.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So now it's 1976. There's lots of wars to be a vet of. So people. There's a lot of people who come there. They meet every year. And this year it's in Philadelphia. The convention, like I said, is from July 21st to 24th, a Wednesday through a Saturday. A lot of the men share rooms. There's probably a handful of women, but it's mostly men. And everything goes fine. Like the convention itself seems to be fine. And then they start to get sick kind of almost immediately on July 22, even before the it's over. People start to have chills, a fever, a headache. They generally feel just like, not good. Some of them have a cough, and some of it. Some of the times that cough progresses to, like, more of pneumonia. That starts to happen kind of right away. If they get a fever, the fever gets so high it can go up to 107, which is like, you're almost dead.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Yeah. That's as high as it goes. So once they get home, things start to get worse again. Not for everybody, but for some of them. So on July 27, so three days after it's over. A man named Ray Brennan dies at home. He's 61 years old, and he dies of a heart attack. On July 30, Frank Avini, who's 60, dies. And then three other attendees died right around the same time. So because it's in Philly, it's like the. It's like the Pennsylvania Legionnaires. So they all kind of live in the area. And a doctor named Dr. Ernest Campbell in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, is like, okay, well, I just had three people die of pneumonia.
Three men die of Legionnaires Disease after attending a Philadelphia convention last week
Like, what is going on? Like, what are the. What's the, like, correlation? And they all had gone to this convention. So he alerted the CDC and was like, something's going on. Like, I don't know what it is, but, like, it is can't be a coincidence that these three guys just died. And they were all this thing together last week. By August 1st, which is, like, the next Sunday, six more people die. All have the fever, congestion. When they are autopsied. They said their lungs look like Brillo pads. They're just, like, dry and terrible. By in August 5th through 6th, there are, like, over 150 people in the hospital. 22 people die in that week. And so they're trying to figure out, like, what the h*** is going on? Because they don't know. Like, they know that it all goes back to the convention, but they can't figure out, like, why they're all sick. So they call on the cdc, and the CDC goes to Philly, and they do one of the largest disease investigations of ever. They send. I wrote the CDC in parentheses. RIP sends a team, and David Frazier leads it from the cdc, and the press starts calling it Legionnaires Disease. So it gets the name from this convention from these folks. They do all kinds of survey and research because they're like, how can, like, two people share a room but only one of them get sick? You know? And then also, there's another disease that they're calling Broad street pneumonia. Because people who just walked by the hotel are also getting sick, but not everyone.
>> Farz: Yeah, I definitely don't know enough to have an opinion.
>> Taylor: So. So, like, what's going on? The employees in the hotel aren't getting sick, but some people who say there are. So the surveys that they ask and the things that the CDC asks, these guys are like, when did you take the elevator? Did you take the elevator to the meetings on, like, this day or that day? What meetings did you go to? Did you drink the coffee on Friday? Just, like, anything they can do to think of where this could possibly have come from. Then they're like. If you remember the other things that were happening in Philly at this time, they were like, did you see a sex worker? One of the options was potentially super gonorrhea, which sounds very bad. I do.
>> Farz: I do. I. Well, I do recall that we did think there was a strain of super gonorrhea. That sounds familiar.
>> Taylor: Yeah. I feel like that comes up every once in a while.
>> Farz: I think that came up in our childhood. That sounds like a thing.
>> Taylor: Maybe.
>> Farz: Okay.
>> Taylor: Probably always a thing somewhere. Also, like, could it have been the trash? Like, if you ever. Have you ever been in. Even in, like, a city where the trash is working correctly during the summer, it smells terrible.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: You know, but. But if you have a garbage strike, too. It happened, I think, a couple times when I was in New York. It's just like piles and piles, like, over your head of garbage, and it just smells like death, and it's terrible. And you're like, well, there's no way we're not getting sick from this. You know, just absolutely worst. And then also they were like, could it have been a biological weapon? Because there had been, like, the terrorist threats against the thing. So they're covering all their bases, trying to figure out what it was. Eventually they were able to narrow it down that people who were over 50 who smoked were the most infected. So definitely affected their lungs. That's why some people could, like, share rooms and one person would die and one person would be okay. At one point, they were sure they found the answer that it was nickel poisoning. So they were, like, checking everything for nickel. But it turns out that the autopsies, they used nickel scalpels. And it was the scalpels that was the thing.
>> Farz: Oh, wow.
>> Taylor: Which is annoying.
>> Farz: You think somebody would have caught that earlier.
>> Taylor: Yeah. By September, there's, you know, 200 cases and 34 deaths. Essentially, you die of, like, pneumonia. So they're trying to, like, narrow down, figure out exactly what it is. And on January 18, 1977, that they found the previously unknown bacteria and they named it Legionella. Nope, Nope. Anyway, they named it after them. It's a brand new bacteria that they hadn't seen before. They named it after the legionnaires. They were able to find it by, like, putting it like a couple of guinea pig testing to see. Literally using animals to try to figure out what it is. And they found it. And then they were like, well, where did it come from? So it's a new bacteria they've never seen before that causes a disease that They've never seen before, and they can't figure out where it. Try to figure out where it came from. Do you know where it came from?
>> Farz: It has to be. No, but you explain why it's not. Okay, sorry, I'm going back to, like, Covid stuff anyways. No, I have no idea.
>> Taylor: It is not person to person.
Legionnaire's disease came from stagnant water in a hotel cooling tower
There's one case in the world where it was person to person, but it's not person to person. It actually came from the AC unit on the top of the hotel because the AC was a cooling tower. And I'll explain to you how that works. But it's essentially from stagnant water. So current and like, recent. Ish. Since then, cases of Legionnaire's disease have come from all types of things. They've come from, like, it's a big building. Cooling towers, showers, hot tubs, decorative fountains, large plumbing. Just like anything where you can have water that gets stagnant and gets gross, because any, like, plain water that doesn't move is going to get bacteria in it. And this is what. This is where it came from.
>> Farz: So people probably died of this before.
>> Taylor: Yes.
>> Farz: Okay.
>> Taylor: Yeah, They've probably been dying of it for a very long time. But it was never identified by the scientific community, and until this.
>> Farz: Right, okay, right.
>> Taylor: Like the current scientific community. So the hotel had what a lot of large buildings have, which is a cooling tower. So like a huge AC unit on the top of the. Of the hotel, which I think is probably very similar to the swamp cooler that I have at my house, where, like, water goes through it, and that's what cools. That's what cools everything. So again, I'm not an engineer, but what happens is hot water gets pushed in to, like, a large, flat pool area in the. In the cooling tower, and then the heat rises, the cool air is pushed out, and that creates, like, the AC in the hotel. And then the rest of the water is recycled again and a tiny bit is evaporated. It becomes vapor. And that kind of. That's what goes out into the air. But mostly the water recycles itself and the cool air gets pushed through it while the hot air goes up.
>> Farz: That's how your AC unit works. That's what a swamp unit is, I think.
>> Taylor: So I have a regular AC now, and I don't think it does that, but also, like, your AC drips water because it's always, like, getting the condensation. But I think it's in, like, a big building where they have the water. My swamp cooler specifically is attached to the water. And the water goes through a filter, and then the. The. The water cools, and that's what cools the house. We don't use it anymore. But, like, that's the same thing.
>> Farz: Yeah, I thought, like, now it's like, it's got to be chemicals. Could be, like, Freon and stuff.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah. But. But the cooling towers that they use, they use it in, like, a lot of big industrial buildings, and a lot of hospitals use a cooling tower, especially, like, big buildings. So in this case, at the Belfort Stratford Hotel, the water was stagnated at the bottom of the cooling tower, and it wasn't recycling, and it wasn't doing what it's supposed to be doing. It was a little bit broken, and they had people fixing it, but they hadn't been fixed. So they have a picture on Wikipedia of this. At the David J. Sensor CDC Museum in Atlanta, there's a jug of water that is the water from the cooling tower during this outbreak. And it is yellow, which, like, cannot be good. It is, like, bright yellow. So that's like the bacteria in there that was, like, evaporating into the air that was going through the AC units. So now that you know what it is, it can be treated with, like, some antibiotics. So there is a way to treat it. It still has a, you know, like, 5 to 6% fatality rate, because if you don't treat it fast enough and depending on, you know, who you are, if you've been soaking, if you're older, all those things can, like, essentially make it worse. Now, there are new laws around standing water, so you can start identifying what it is, but it really needs to. Those contraptions and things need to have a system where they are heating the water enough, like, above 158 degrees Fahrenheit so that it can kill the bacteria before it goes through the air, if that makes sense. Because, like, there's a huge gap, which is 68 to 112 degrees, where it can just grow like that, and many other bacteria can just grow. It helps if you remove slime. And then also, just a no tip for everyone to get a new humidifier. I just got a new humidifier. Get a new one.
>> Farz: Because. Why? Because.
>> Taylor: Because bacteria can grow in it so easily at the regular ambient temperature of your house.
>> Farz: You know what? I have one of. I have two of those little things that, like, create vapors in the room. And every now and then, I open it and I look inside. It is so disgusting in there.
>> Taylor: Yeah. You should clean it or throw it away.
>> Farz: So Just breathing the air in is enough to get infected.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah. That's how it's transmitted. It's transmitted through, like, vapor in the air. So it's not like the air conditioning system itself is the thing. It's the water vapor. So it was. Because it wasn't working correctly, and the water, because it was so hot, all these different things, the water was never doing what it was supposed to do to kind of clear clean itself. And it was just like growing, growing and growing this bacteria.
>> Farz: But then why would two people in the same room being fed by the same or receiving the same air?
>> Taylor: Because that. It's because of their personal, like, history. So if you smoke and if you're older and if you, like, could be sick, you would get it more often. Like, if you're more vulnerable to those things, like, you would. You would get sicker. So everybody who died from, like, the 1976 outbreak was someone who was older and who had, like, previous lung problems.
>> Farz: So it was like, generally unhealthy and this exasperated.
>> Taylor: It's like, okay, yeah, yeah. So like, you should clean your human. Your little things.
>> Farz: They're really gross. Like, I. I get shocked whenever I do open them because I'm like, how did it get so black and, like, gross in there?
There have been several cases of Legionnaires disease in Europe
>> Taylor: It's just black. Mine get orange.
>> Farz: There's. There's definitely some orange. There's definitely parts of it that are orange. But then some of the. Some of the, like, standing water is like, mildewy and black.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Because standing water is, like, very dangerous if you just, like, don't let it. Let it filter itself out and move around.
>> Farz: Right. Okay, I'm gonna have to clean this out.
>> Taylor: You're gonna have to clean this. Yeah. Please clean those. So like you said, it's obviously happened before because it is a. It is something that's probably happened for a long time as long as we've have had standing water. But what we can actually track back to being this very specific thing. In 1965, 16 people died at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. a lot of these are at hospitals and like, old people's homes and apartment buildings that have cooling towers. So before this, 1976, in. In Spain, in 73 and 77, four people died at a hotel. And then they were able to trace it back to this. And then since 1976, in 1970, eight people died in Memphis. There's a lot of cases in Australia, which is like another. I. I put. I'm going to add this to my list of reasons not to Go to Australia, because a lot of the cases are in Australia. I don't know why. In the 80s, a bunch of it. A bunch of cases were in England and Australia. 28 people died in a hospital in 1985 in Stafford, England.
>> Farz: It kind of makes sense though, because like, the place you're talking about aren't arid places. They're places with high humidity. And like.
>> Taylor: Which is also exactly why. Because, like, the swamp cooler that we've used in the past that we're not using anymore, because I think it's leaking, but it's here. But I'm like, why don't they have this everywhere? It's cheaper than ac. But you couldn't have it in a place that was humid because it would be a. But like mosquitoes would swarm around it, you know, like, it wouldn't dry out.
>> Farz: It would turn into.
>> Taylor: We're so dry here. Exactly.
>> Farz: When you said Memphis, my first thought was that campaign I did in 2006, whatever it was, it was in Memphis. I lived there for like three, four months. And it was just oppressive heat mixed with.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Humidity. And then if you also have like built in standing water, I mean, it just sounds like an obvious problem.
>> Taylor: Yeah, exactly, exactly. This one I have. This one I thought was the most interesting. In 1999, 32 people died in the Netherlands at a flower exhibition for like, it was like a convention. And they died from a hot tub exhibition. So it was like a big room.
>> Farz: There you go.
>> Taylor: Hot tubs. Yeah, they had a bunch of hot tubs, like out for display and that. And 32 people died in France in. There's a Petro chemical plant where 21 people died. It happened at the Rio in Las Vegas. One person died in 2017 at Disneyland from Legionnaires disease. And then Today is Saturday, August 30th, 2025. Yesterday they officially announced it over. But from August 9th to yesterday this year, there was Legionnaires disease found in 12 cooling towers and 10 buildings in Harlem, New York City. They were able to. To look at the bacterial strains. And the outbreak is believed to have started in an Harlem hospital and an under construction New York City public health lab. Because it was under construction, it was like not being taken care of enough. And that got into the system. And 114 people got sick and seven people died just this month from Legionnaires disease in New York City.
>> Farz: That's wild.
>> Taylor: Not wild. So still a thing. Clean your stuff.
>> Farz: I mean, and also just like be somewhat healthy. Like the fact that you can like sustain like. Yeah, like just I mean, I'm not a picture of health. I know that. Like, I'm not trying to, like, shame anybody. I know that.
>> Taylor: What's that word? I can't remember it. For people who are, like, more vulnerable to things, you know, remember, like, Jim, like, we had, like, our boss who had. Had cancer, and he, you know, it's not his fault he had cancer, but he was, like, someone who I guess is a preexisting condition or whatever. But, like, if he got sick, it was worse than it was for us.
>> Farz: No, I know. I'm saying, like, things like smoking, for example, or, like, being, like, super overweight. Like, it's something you have some agency in control over, not the fact that Jim got cancer 17 times.
>> Taylor: No, I know, but. But, like. But, like, for. Yeah, for people like that, like, you have to be particularly careful because, I mean. And then at a certain age, stay.
>> Farz: Home, I think, like, man, but then.
>> Taylor: No, but what if your little humidifier kills you?
You know, whenever you see a pool that hasn't been cleaned, it's horrifying
>> Farz: I'm throwing this thing away. I'm looking at it right now. It's like, trying to glow red. Yeah. Okay. You know, you. When you were talking, what I actually thought about is, you know that pool we swam in? The cowboy pool in my backyard?
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So that thing, the. When the last freeze hit in Austin, the pump burst on it, and it burst, and it was cold, and I didn't feel like having to change it and fix it and do all that, like, do all the expense of it. So I kind of let it sit there, and it sat there with, like, water that deep for probably six months before I was like, okay, I. I gotta fix this. But, like, that thing probably had this in there. I mean, baking in the sun in Austin.
>> Taylor: Exactly. That's why they. You know, that's why you put in pools, you know, because, like, like, chlorine or whatever you put in your pool.
>> Farz: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, that's been dealt with. It was more so, like, it busts. And I was like, whatever. I'm just gonna let this thing sit until it rust and I can throw it away. But, like, eventually I fixed it. But.
>> Taylor: Yeah, no, totally. I mean, whenever you see a pool that hasn't been cleaned in a long time, you know, it's. It's horrifying because who knows what kind of terrible bacteria is in it? You just have to empty it and clean it out and fix it, shock it.
>> Farz: Like they say, sorry, the dogs keep knocking on the door. Yeah, no, I. There's. There's also that shocking thing you can get.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: And so I've done that before. But anyways, that's really interesting. I never. When. When you started talking, at first, I was like, oh, we, like, discovered a new bacteria. Like, they never existed. Like, somehow we created this thing. And I was like, oh. Like, it's probably been around since time immemorial, and we just never knew what it was.
>> Taylor: It's like, when. We didn't know until, like, the Spanish Flu. Remember that guy in wherever who, like, found out that malaria was. Or the Spanish flu is from mosquitoes and he, like, give it to himself. Yeah, that story. So I feel like we'll talk about that eventually. But he. But, like, now I'm like, no dust from the mosquitoes. You know, but, like, for all of human history, they were like, we don't know where this is from.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: You know, but, like, now it feels like, well, freaking. Obviously it's from the mosquitoes. Like, you're getting. It's transmitting blood everywhere. There's blood everywhere. How do you not know this? You know?
>> Farz: But seems so obvious. We know.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Like, I. Again, I could have been the printing press, but I don't know if I could figure that out if no one else did. I don't know.
>> Farz: Yeah, give me a death of me. That's why I'm getting up, by the way. Every 15 seconds, they're banging on the door.
>> Taylor: It's like Ben Franklin's ghost also knocks on the door, but it's a lot cuter because he's a tortoise.
>> Farz: Yeah, it probably sounds less like a bunch of hyenas shredding a gazelle.
>> Taylor: He's been trying. He's been trying to climb this one shelf that's outside. And one time I found him on his back, which was very scary because he can't be on his back because I could kill him. So. But he actually got up on the shelf today, and then Florence made him a ramp to get down, and he just, like, slid down it. And I'm sure that was, like, the best he's ever gone. And it was really cute.
>> Farz: That's very cute. Very cute. I've been getting less pictures of him, which I'm a little disappointed by, but.
>> Taylor: Oh, I know. I'll send you pictures of him. We took him to a hotel last weekend, and we went to, like, an indoor water park, and we brought him with him and just had him in the bathtub and just, like, dry, you know, sitting in the bathroom all day. And then we went out to eat, and I was like, okay, well, we have to. On our Way out. So we couldn't leave him anywhere. So we put him in his Tupperware container that obviously has holes in it, and we put him in that. And we put him in, like, a big paper bag, and we held it, like, very carefully, and we, like, very loudly were like, we have this cake in this bag. We have to make sure it's very still. And we just, like, talked about it being a cake the whole time.
>> Farz: It's the way to do it.
I recognize that turtles and tortoises can carry salmonella
That is absolutely.
>> Taylor: That he came to a restaurant.
>> Farz: I don't know why. There's something. Maybe it's, like, Primitive Brain of Mine where, like, I could have sworn that, like, reptiles also had one of those weird things where there. There was, like, they had diseases that were, like, really gnarly in humans.
>> Taylor: So I did have to sign a piece of paper with. When I got him, I signed a bunch of stuff. But one of the things was, like, that I recognize that turtles and tortoises can carry salmonella. But the woman who gave me Ben Franklin's ghost was telling me that, like, it's, of course, possible, but it's more likely with the reptiles that eat meat.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: You know, because he only eats, like, lettuce and, like, dandelion greens and cactuses.
>> Farz: I never associated with, like, frogs and.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Turtles. I mostly associate. Well, I mean, those also eat meat sometimes, but, like, I mostly associate with, like, snakes and, like, very large lizards. Yeah. For some reason. I don't know. Again, I probably watched Discovery way too much when I was a kid, and I, like, plant implanted in my brain.
>> Taylor: I think that's safe. Like, don't get so close to them.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: You never know.
>> Farz: Yeah. I mean, Gila monsters will kill you with their, like, spit because they're so toxic. So.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Or like. Like the. The, you know, the frogs that you can. That you can put your arrow on and then kill someone with.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah.
>> Taylor: Double kill them. Yeah.
How did you come up with this topic about Legionnaires disease
>> Farz: But how did you come up with this topic?
>> Taylor: I think that, you know, Legionnaires disease is, like, I know this is so stupid, and you're never going to remember this, and no one else will get this, but, like, remember how I said that sometimes I just think Harrison Bergeron, that Kurt Vonnegut story. But, like, the words Harrison Bergeron are, like, in my head a lot, and so is Legionnaires disease. It's like, one of those words that. It's like, I don't know, kind of beautiful in a weird way.
>> Farz: So it's like, in my head, I. Yeah. There's. There's my Brain makes weird associations. There's a 19, like late 80s or early 90s movie when Jean Claude Van Damme became like famous action hero kind of a guy called the Legionnaire. Oh, called the Legionnaire. Somebody's gonna fact check me and look this up. Yeah, it's called Legionnaire. And for some reason like that imprinted in my brain about legionnaires. And when I would in John Claudian name was like the coolest guy in the world. When you're like a young boy, you know, when he was coming up. And so my mind, I was like, there's like this disease. Sounds like it makes you super gnarly and really cool, but clearly does that.
>> Taylor: Make you really cool. Why is he wearing this hat? I love.
>> Farz: Because he's in the French Foreign Legion. Because everything that I associate with Legion Legionnaire is in the. Is in France. Which also reminds me, I want to do an episode at some point about the French Foreign Legion because the whole concept is like wild. It's. It's like mercenaries. It's. It's not like what you described in the U.S. it's like, okay, hardcore.
>> Taylor: That makes so much sense. Why I only think of it as like a French thing. Oh, my God, this is amazing. It says, when ambitious boxer Ellen Lefebvre refuses to accept a mobster's bribe, he ends up with the price on his head. A marked man, Lefebvre takes refuge by enlisting in the French Foreign Legion and gets sent to Morocco.
>> Farz: Yeah, it's great. It sounds fun. 1998. There we go.
>> Taylor: It's 29%.
>> Farz: I would have been 14 years old. And that was exactly the age where I was like, I'm going to kick everyone's b***. And I started taking karate lessons and I realized that I have no coordination.
>> Taylor: Oh, you took karate lessons. That's fun.
>> Farz: Yeah, I was a little nerd fun. Well, thank you for sharing.
Ben: I've been watching a lot of plane crash shows recently
Anything else?
>> Taylor: On that note, I do have some listener mail, sort of. I will I reach out to Ben because my friend Ben, who talked about who is a pilot, and I asked him if he has to do the simulator because, like, I don't know, like flight simulators always like a thing that they talk about and plane crashes or especially in the Malaysia one, because I was talking about that. And he does. They have to do courses every, like, trimester, different trainings. And then like this year he has to do like, he just did one for the winter because, like, winter is different than everything else. You have to kind of like, re up your winter knowledge and that kind of thing. So yes to that. And then I've been watching a lot of those plane crash shows, so thank you, everyone. I watched Green Dot that you suggested. I told you this, but it was so funny. They have ads and they had an ad for Factor. Like, like, yeah, the s***** meal Kit. And there I'm like. He said, well, the people on this doomed flight, their meal was served and it's too bad it wasn't factored. And then went to the commercial and I'm like, oh, my gosh, people just are gonna die. Like five minutes. So funny. And then I watched Mayday Air Disaster and I have a couple notes on United Airlines Flight 232. They did a crash landing and a bunch people died, but the pilot made an announcement that said, this is going to be the worst thing you've ever been through before they landed or crash landed. I just can't imagine, like, okay, sugarcoat it a little bit. You don't need to, like, say that to me.
>> Farz: When. Do you know when that one was?
>> Taylor: I can't remember. And then also the ntsb, the National Transportation Safety Bureau. Is that what that is? Are the people who look bored who look into those. It is a great job for adults with autism. You know, it's just. They have to be just, like, so detailed, you know? I mean, those guys, it's.
>> Farz: They're like, yeah, you're. You're reconstructing just fragments of things.
>> Taylor: And then my last note is like, what is wrong with you? If you are a parent and you have your child be on Mayday Air Disaster as an actor on a plane that's crashing, like, how much money could you possibly make from that? Like, a thousand dollars? What is wrong with you? Your kid is not gonna win an Academy Award.
>> Farz: They have to, like, do some cgi. They can't be like, really?
>> Taylor: That there's no way Mayday Air Disaster is not new enough to have cgi.
>> Farz: Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.
>> Taylor: I just think. I just think that's wild. I'm like, what? You're gonna let your child be on this, like, fake plane crash show?
>> Farz: What is wrong with you Hollywood parents, man.
>> Taylor: Jesus Christ.
>> Farz: Well, thank you for sharing and Ben, thank you for answering our questions. We probably could just fill your inbox with the questions.
>> Taylor: Honestly, he was like, you should call me sometime. I was like, I know. Because he was sending so many questions.
>> Farz: We should do that. We should pile a list of questions and see if you'll do an interview. That'd be fun.
>> Taylor: And then also we're going to do a bunch of re releases in the upcoming weeks with a lot of travel coming up, which will be super fun. And for us individually, separately, going, going places. I'm going to a spa for a weekend. I can't wait. And so that is coming up too. So just look out for those. I already scheduled a ton of them.
>> Farz: No, I appreciate that. Yeah. This is a crazy travel couple of months.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So that's why. That's why we're gonna be a little behind on things, but yeah.
>> Taylor: Okay.
>> Farz: Appreciate that. And go ahead. Sorry.
>> Taylor: No, you do it.
Stop contacting me over Instagram, Facebook, Slack and my phone
>> Farz: No, I appreciate that. And sharing. And follow us on all the socials. Do nufeldpod, Gmail dot or follow us on the socials at duneflpod. Write to us@duneflpodmail.com we do love getting your feedback, so please do not.
>> Taylor: We get so excited.
>> Farz: We get very excited. Taylor messages me immediately.
>> Taylor: Immediately.
>> Farz: And we love it, you know, which.
>> Taylor: Is exhausting since we get so much mail.
>> Farz: It's just. Guys, actually stop writing. It's just too much.
>> Taylor: Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Stop contacting me over Instagram, Facebook, Slack and my phone.
>> Farz: Everywhere. Everywhere. Cool. We'll go and cut things off there.
>> Taylor: Thanks.
>> Farz: Thank you.