Man with incurable TB quarantined

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Butterscotch

War Child
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
716
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/05/30/tb.flight/index.html?section=cnn_latest

For the first time in over 40 years, the US has demanded a person be quarantined for the public health of all. I know these days our government has stomped on personal freedoms more than usual, but in this case, don't you think it's for the best? This man intentionally traveled worldwide knowing he had this disease and was asked not to travel. This could cause an epidemic that may kill thousands, or millions all over the world if not contained now. What are your thoughts on this?
 
This is certainly a narrowly applied quarantine, and considering what a serious and transmittable disease XDR TB is, a quarantine like this is precisely why the CDC exists. I don't think anyone reasonably interprets this to be a case of squashing civil liberties, just for the hell of it.

Just for clarification, XDR TB can be cured--but only about 30% of the time.
 
Compare this case to the one recently reported in Arizona where a guy w/TB has been kept in solitary confinement for a year, with no running water, no TV, no magazines or books, his only connection to the outside world being a pay telephone. This is his punishment for going outside without a mask. This case is not being covered by the mainstream media whereas this more privileged guy, a lawyer whose father works for the CDC, and got on 7 different airplanes knowing he had TB, is not having charges pressed against him.

whole story here, excerpt below
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/06/142246

27-year-old Robert Daniels is being held against his will in a Phoenix hospital ward reserved for sick prisoners. If state officials have their way, he could be there for the rest of his life. Daniels is suffering from a deadly strain of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB. Doctors say he is virtually untreatable. He has been forced to live in a hospital cell in complete isolation. [includes rush transcript]

Daniels contracted the disease while living in Russia. He returned to the United States last year and agreed to a voluntary quarantine in residential care. But Daniels violated his agreement when he went outside without a mask. Daniels says he misunderstood how much of a health risk he posed, in part because he hadn't been forced to wear a mask in Russia.

Today, Daniels has been forced to live in a hospital cell in complete isolation. His only visitors are medical staff. Sheriff's deputies have taken away his television, radio, phone and computer. He is under 24-hour surveillance and the light in his room is never turned off, even at night. His only contact to the outside world is a pay-phone. Daniels recently described his ordeal in a phone interview with the Arizona radio station KJZZ.

... ROBERT DANIELS: I never thought that this could happen. I’m telling you, I'm sometimes sitting on a bed, and I'm just crying because of all the quietness. I don't have, you know, a permission to take a normal shower, and I have to spit wash. It's really cold, especially at this time. I can't, you know, even -- I can’t even spit wash normally.

They 're telling me I’m an inmate. They gave me a booking number, you know, which is for what? For having TB? Booking number? It's just being all ridiculous. If they want me to be isolated, that's fine with me, but, you know, they don't have the right to isolate me from the other world, especially my family, especially from the media, the news, the everything. I mean, I’m all alone here. I don't even know what the hell is going on in the world. I’m not being isolated. I’m being incarcerated, and I have nobody to talk to. My mental health is going down. I’m just slowly dying.
 
I can believe that someone with no money is treated much worse. If this Speaker had been a poor bum, he likely would have been arrested already. That's the injustice in the system. The way Daniels is being treated is unacceptable. Why no entertainment? Can't they at least make him comfortable? But in the case of this disease quarantine really is necessary. Unfortunately you have people with the disease who have no regard at all for the health of others, either through selfishness, laziness or even a 'take everyone down with me' attitude. You never know what the cause of their carelessness is, who knows, someone may even have a sick fantasy of being a 'typhoid mary' that goes down in the history books. It's frightening to think there are people going around with this disease not taking proper precautions. I hope a cure for this disease is found soon for everyone's sake.
 
Last edited:
I read this excellent health blog almost daily. :nerd: The participants are all doctors/health professionals of one kind or another. They're smart and funny and cover topics like this from every angle. Naturally there's a spirited discussion going on about this. I always read the comments after the article, too...if anyone's interested:
http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2007/05/isolation_or_quarantine_which.php#more
 
man that guy has a hot wife.

am i a base individual for thinking this way?

i don't care, she's hot, and i've taken too much Hoodia today i think.:angry:

dbs
:huh:
 
In my opinion this guy should face criminal charges. He was told that he was contagious and should not travel, but he did anyway with absolutely no regard for the people he would come in contact with. He is now saying that he was told it was okay to travel, but I do not believe him for a second. If he thought he was cleared to travel then why did he fly back into Canada instead of a US airport? The answer is obvious - he knew there would be an alert on him and he was trying to sneak back into the country, which he managed to do thanks to an idiot border guard. Of course, since the guy is a personal injury lawyer I'm sure he will somehow make himself out to be the victim here. He'll probably sue the media for soiling his precious reputation and get a nice fat settlement.

By the way, the border incident is another example of how he would have been treated differently. You know that if this had been a person of color that border guard would not have ignored the warning and let him pass. But the guard saw a young, smiling, professional, healthy-looking white man in front of him and decided he was a-ok despite the dire warning showing on his screen. Talk about racial profiling.
 
My main curiosity is how the guy's name was released to the press the other day by some source who wished to remain anonymous.

Gee, do you think he/she wanted to remain anonymous so they wouldn't get their ass sued for violation of health privacy laws?
 
Zootomic said:

By the way, the border incident is another example of how he would have been treated differently. You know that if this had been a person of color that border guard would not have ignored the warning and let him pass. But the guard saw a young, smiling, professional, healthy-looking white man in front of him and decided he was a-ok despite the dire warning showing on his screen. Talk about racial profiling.

Talk about speculating.
 
corianderstem said:
My main curiosity is how the guy's name was released to the press the other day by some source who wished to remain anonymous.

Gee, do you think he/she wanted to remain anonymous so they wouldn't get their ass sued for violation of health privacy laws?


When it comes to matters of public health, HIPAA rules don't apply the same way they do with your medical records.
 
randhail said:


Talk about speculating.
It is speculation, but it's based on the media reports that one of the reasons the border guard passed the guy through is that he felt Speaker looked healthy and that the warning was merely discretionary. So the guard is admitting that part of the reason was based on appearance. I don't think it's a huge leap from there to believe that race may have also been involved. So, yes it is speculation on my part.

I'm also basing my opinion on my experiences crossing into and back from Canada. I have crossed many times at Champlain and also at Massena, Ogdensburg, and the Thousand Islands. I have seen how the guards treat you differently depending on how you look. I have crossed with a group of college friends including a Japanese-American and an African-American and gotten the stink-eye from the guards, twice being pulled to the side for twenty minutes or so of questioning. I have also crossed with my parents and every time they get a friendly smile and a wave-through.
 
randhail said:
When it comes to matters of public health, HIPAA rules don't apply the same way they do with your medical records.

That's something I hadn't thought of, and it's a good point.

But what difference does it make to have his name out there? Are they testing people who may have come into contact with him in everyday life before and after his travel? Was it released so his next door neighbor could say "Oh sit, I need to get to the hospital!" ?

Is that the case, or are they only concerned about the other passengers on his flights? Because if they're only concerned about them, then his name didn't need to be released.

And if it's okay during a public health crisis to release the patient's name, why the anonymity from the source?
 
Last edited:
what pisses me off is that a person with HIV/AIDS can spend the rest of their life behind bars for knowingly not telling a partner they have the disease, and this guy gets off on this?

I hope he dies. He deserves to.
 
MirrorballLemon said:
what pisses me off is that a person with HIV/AIDS can spend the rest of their life behind bars for knowingly not telling a partner they have the disease, and this guy gets off on this?

I hope he dies. He deserves to.

I understand your anger, but is this really the same thing?
 
MirrorballLemon said:
I hope he dies. He deserves to.

Well, you will get your wish, because he will die (whether he deserves to or not).

Of course, you are going to die too. We all will -- no way out of that one.

I don't think he was clearly told he was infectious before he left the US and I can't really blame him for wanting to get back to his own country before being quarantined. I don't think he handled the situation particularly well, but I suspect most of us in the same situation wouldn't have handled it much better.
 
The guy is a "personal injury lawyer" (i.e, ambulance chaser), oh sweet irony when hundreds of people on flights he was on sue his ass............
 
toscano said:
The guy is a "personal injury lawyer" (i.e, ambulance chaser), oh sweet irony when hundreds of people on flights he was on sue his ass............

Sweet irony indeed.

What's being done to the guy in Arizona is unacceptable. But this guy, screw him I say, flying all over, doing his level best to spread peace, love, and TB.
 
indra said:


Well, you will get your wish, because he will die (whether he deserves to or not).

Of course, you are going to die too. We all will -- no way out of that one.

I don't think he was clearly told he was infectious before he left the US and I can't really blame him for wanting to get back to his own country before being quarantined. I don't think he handled the situation particularly well, but I suspect most of us in the same situation wouldn't have handled it much better.

I saw an interview with him, and he claimed that he didn't know he was very contagious. The CDC sent him a letter "strongly advising" him not to fly, but he never got the letter because it was sent out the day before he left for Greece.

He undoubtedly handled the situation poorly after he found out he needed to get back to the U.S. I don't know what I would do either...
 
Andy Borowitz

TB Guy Tops Bush in New Poll

Posted June 6, 2007

In the latest sign of erosion for President George W. Bush's job approval rating, a new poll released today reveals that Mr. Bush is now less popular among the American people than the so-called "TB Guy," Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker.

While the president's approval numbers have been in a virtual free-fall in recent months, few political insiders expected him to be trounced by Mr. Speaker, who has been accused of exposing airline passengers to tuberculosis.

Additionally, the poll results are historic in another way, since they mark the first time that a sitting president has been deemed less popular than a quarantined disease carrier.

But at the White House today, official spokesman Tony Snow tried to put a positive spin on the numbers, saying that Mr. Speaker's poll numbers received an artificial "bounce" as a result of all of the press coverage he has received in recent days.

"If President Bush had been quarantined for spreading tuberculosis around the world, his numbers would be right up there with the TB Guy's," Mr. Snow claimed.
 
"If President Bush had been quarantined for spreading tuberculosis around the world, his numbers would be right up there with the TB Guy's," Mr. Snow claimed.

Now there's a ringing endorsement.
 
Back
Top Bottom