So, what should be done about the personal injury lawyer who was diagnosed with a potentially untreatable form of TB and is asked to not travel to Europe, yet does anyway? This is not an uneducated or uninformed person. This is a 31 year old man, a lawyer practicing in his father's law firm in Atlanta. He knows the meaning of the term of willful negligence.
So, never mind the potential health risk to unknowing fellow travelers, this man boards an international flight and arrives in Italy. He and his new bride are told by the Italian officials that he must be quarantined. They flee instead. The CDC told him to get treatment in Rome, but he knew the best treatment would be best in the U.S.
Alert Michael Moore: he didn't go to Cuba for treatment. Or anywhere in Europe with the socialized health care systems. Just a side note.
He rented a car in Canada and drove back into the country, knowing the officials would be looking out for them.
The real twist from the news today? This new father in law, the wife's father, is a 30 year employee of the CDC in Atlanta. He's a microbiologist, dealing with TB research. He says he is regularly tested for TB and does not have it. Truly strange development.
The behavior of this young lawyer is beyond the pale. What a selfish, irresponsible person. Now his fellow passengers on the planes will undergo testing, repeat in six months and again in another six months. So, it'll be more than a year before they'll be told if they are out of the woods or not.
This fool isn't helping the reputation of lawyers, now is he.
The CDC botched the episode, too. They should have insisted on his quarantine as soon as his condition was discovered. Talk about bio terrorism.
And this botch can't be blamed on Bush.
3 comments:
It is bizarre isn't it that one well-known diagnosed intelligent man could be let through so many check points (including his own personal, selfless responsibility to others) but we are supposed to believe that this immigration bill will stop similarly infected people at the border.
Maybe not a connected story, but we have in this country cases of diseases pretty much eradicated for years cropping up -- because of unrestricted *travel*. All those folks on the plane have a right to be good and mad.
I want to share somehting that really made me laugh out loud...read through to the end! SpiffyTown Post
He certainly needs to be held accountable, but being who he is, will find a way around it.
I have a friend who lived and worked in Haiti for about 20 years. She worked at a hospital the last few years and never tested positive for TB. And there is a lot of TB in Haiti.
They live now in Philadelphia. Through routine testing, she tested positive and had to go through a series of treatments and testing for quite a while before she was cleared. Go figure.
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