The Tipping Point | Characters & Character Analysis

The Tipping Point Important People

John Zenilman

Zenilman performs research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The author cites him as an expert on sexually transmitted diseases. Zenilman's expertise supports the first principle of epidemics in chapter one. This rule states that a small change, in this case reduced health care for the poor, results in major effects, such as mass spread of syphilis.

John Potterat

Gladwell also cites the work of Potterat, one of America's leading epidemiologists. Like Zenilman, Potterat cites a small and unrelated cause of the spread of STDs: the destruction of downtown housing projects.

Darnell "Boss Man' McGee

McGee and others serve as case studies of the way in which one person can spread a disease, such as HIV. McGee slept with over 100 women in the St. Louis area, infecting 30 with HIV. Other men, such as Nushawn Williams and Gaetan Dugas, also spread the disease in other parts of the country through promiscuous sexual relations with...
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