Curiouser and Curiouser
The story about the TB Tourist just gets stranger and stranger. The media, both the MSM and blogosphere, are going crazy over this story about a guy with TB who traveled internationally. It's easy to demonize this guy and wonder what kind of monster would do this, until you read his story.
Basically, Andrew Speaker, a personal injury attorney from Atlanta, Georgia learned he had TB, but flew to Greece anyway to get married and go on a honeymoon. You hear he's a PI lawyer, so already he has two strikes against him, and to travel after that? Fugeddaboutit. And somehow he sneaks back into the States from Canada, getting past a border guard who should have stopped him when his name popped up on the computer. Excuse me?
But when you read his story, it makes you wonder. Is he right? Did the CDC tell him that he was not contagious? Then why are they making such a stink? It sounds like they're just trying to cover their butt. And how, you have to wonder, how the heck did he get back here? Why didn't the border guard stop him? There's something mighty strange going on here. It just doesn't add up.
Cartoon by Chip Bok.
Posted by Dave Blog Tag: News
Posted 6/01/2007 01:46:00 PM
L
On 6/02/2007 2:42 PM, 
Candace said...
On 6/03/2007 8:22 PM, dkgoodman said...
On 6/03/2007 9:59 PM, Melissa said...
On 6/04/2007 3:14 PM, Candace said...
4 Comments:
He says, she says, they say.
With so many people involved, it's impossible to know the facts.
The whole situation becomes extremely subjective.
Blame does nothing constructive to remedy the situation.
Would you have rabbited out of another country and done all that you could to be treated in an American facility?
Granted, we personally didn't have to face that choice, but it's quite likely that I'd be frantic to get home just as he was.
Providing I had the time to and was able to think straight (unlikely), acquiring a hospital mask (or something like it) to wear on the plane would have been a wonderful and helpful idea.
(A heart transplant patient I once knew would wear a hospital mask in certain situations to protect herself from contagious illnesses. It seems to me that it could work the other way around as well.)
[Melissa, I'd sure welcome your input on hospital masks and if they can help prevent the spread of this rare form of TB.]
Woulda, coulda, shoulda...
The best that can be done at this point is to examine the situation and hopefully learn from it.
Speaker says they admitted they were just covering themselves, that they didn't think he was contagious.
Another curiosity in this whole affair is Speaker's father in law. Guess what his FIL does? That's right, he studies TB. But they insist that this has nothing to do with Speaker catching TB. They speculate that he caught it overseas.
Now, if this had happened to me, the way Speaker describes, I'd probably rabbit out of a foreign country too, and try to get home, but only if I was sure I wasn't contagious, and I probably would wear a mask just in case.
(BTW, I fixed the line where I wonder if the CDC really told him he wasn't contagious.)
Even though he's a lawyer, I feel for him. Perhaps it wasn't a smart decision to leave the country with an active case of TB, but I can understand his panic over not being able to get back in the U.S. for treatment. I would do whatever it took to get home too. But unless I was assured that I was not in a contagious phase, I also would not board a commercial plane.
There are special masks that protect against TB, but they are hard to wear for more than a few minutes at a time. They seriously interfere with the ability to breathe.
While riding the Metro Rail from our house to Long Beach yesterday, I was wondering how many of the commuters might be harboring contagious illnesses of one sort or another.
Were they diagnosed? Undiagnosed? Did any of them even suspect that they needed to be diagnosed? Did any of them lack the medical coverage for a doctor's visit to get diagnosed?
[There goes that analytical brain of mind, Dave. ::wink::]
The reality is that you don't need to be a passenger on a plane flight to come into contact with a contagious illness. It could be a theatre, a mall, a bus, you name it.
And consider this, theatres, malls, public transportation and the like do not keep passenger lists.
So, who ya gonna call?
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