[bbatha]

Germ theory was also pretty new at the time and not something most working class people would know about, nor did Mary have symptoms.

Contrary to today, germ theory is taught in elementary schools and is well understood by basically everyone. And this woman was clearly experiencing symptoms bad enough to require an ER visit! Visiting the ER likely also means that most of the common religious reasons such as being a Christian Scientist are out the window.

[elihu]

The article mentions translators, so there's evidently some sort of language barrier, and probably a cultural one as well.

Even if she did fully understand that she's supposed to socially distance and observe a lot of very strict precautions to not infect anyone, it's not clear if she had the financial means to actually follow all those rules, which likely prevented her from working.