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2010-10-24 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Remember the guy who knowingly flew internationally with TB?

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Posted by gorb 2010-10-24 02:47|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 No, it's not an invasion of privacy thing. RTWT. It's a government incompetence thing. He had to pay the price for it and now he deserves a day in court and compensation if the facts are as he alleges.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-10-24 04:02|| 2010-10-24 04:02|| Front Page Top

#2 No, it says in the article that he can sue for invasion of privacy, not just the usual government incompetence, which is enough to make you grind your teeth down to nubs.

Be the information right or wrong, the guy showed his true colors and put his own convenience ahead of the lives of almost 100 fellow passengers. He "feared" for his own life if he didn't get back to the US for treatment, but he didn't care for the rest. Men, women, children and babies. Pilots and stewards. And anyone their lives touched. I'm sure someone near where he was when he was informed of his XDR TB status could have taken care of him. I don't belive it's that complicated, but who cares.

It would have been the right thing for the government to have worked with him to get him back here at a reasonable expense to him, but since when has our government ever been into doing the right thing ever since our founding fathers died?

I find it humorous that a lawyer is the subject of this. They often don't give a crap that sometimes some poor guy has fractions of a second to make a difficult decision. They'll go on in court for days about how a split-second decision was made wrong. But in this case the guy had plenty of time to think and rethink his decision, he weaseled out anyway, and he's still shameless enough to try to follow through with a lawsuit.

If I were the judge I'd have tossed him out on his ear. He gave up his right to privacy when he hopped on that plane.

Posted by gorb 2010-10-24 04:48|| 2010-10-24 04:48|| Front Page Top

#3 And so he should have stayed in Europe?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-10-24 05:04|| 2010-10-24 05:04|| Front Page Top

#4 Dunno. Ask the others on the flight with them.

Posted by gorb 2010-10-24 05:16|| 2010-10-24 05:16|| Front Page Top

#5 He selfishly endangered hundreds of people. Zero sympathy for this self-centered prick.

Posted by gromky 2010-10-24 05:56|| 2010-10-24 05:56|| Front Page Top

#6 Europe doesn't know how to treat TB? Selfish prick, pretty obviously

Posted by Frank G 2010-10-24 09:09|| 2010-10-24 09:09|| Front Page Top

#7 If the guy was such a danger to the health of all around him, why didn't the CDC arrange with the CDC in EUrope to have him quarantined immediately and returned in a secure fahsion? Because he wasn't such a danger and the CDC was a dysfunctional bureaucracy? How about that fluy pandemic?

As to the guy being a selfish prick, he did what he appears to have done what he did at the urging of the CDC. Sure they wanted a chartered plane, but I'd bet he said "I can't afford that, I'll fly coach." But the truth is we don't know what happened and that's the purpose of a trial. He's made a case that he deserves one in my mind and in the minds of the 11th CC. It's not that easy to get to sue the government. He deserves his day in court.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-10-24 09:39|| 2010-10-24 09:39|| Front Page Top

#8 As was mentioned in the article, this dude was used as a toy by the CDC, to both make him an example, and to get their budget increased.

He generally obeyed their orders, in so far as he could, and yet when he got back to the US, they decided to manhandle him and treat him as an arrogant public menace.

So yes, on the surface he sounds like a douche bag, but what he did was what most people would have done.

I say this as a strong believer in involuntary medical detention for those who recklessly break quarantine. Just in NYC alone, there are probably more than a dozen people in medical detention (most for TB), because they refuse to take their medicine.

Posted by Anonymoose 2010-10-24 09:53|| 2010-10-24 09:53|| Front Page Top

#9 Where was he in Europe when they called him? In most of Europe the health care is excellent if you have lots of money or private health insurance, which any American not on Medicare will have. Even if the TB medication needed to be shipped under refrigeration, it would only cost a few hundred dollars for DHL to get it over there within two days, and perhaps two thousand dollars to send over a technician to administer it, if necessary. I speak from personal knowledge about DHL rates; I had to look into getting medication shipped across the ocean once. Fortunately someone had a business meeting at the right place and time. Also, I spent five years getting excellent medical care in Germany and Belgium, courtesy of the health insurance plan provided by Mr. Wife's employer, while my local friends waited months for appointments. We won't discuss differing attitudes toward dental care, though -- that we had done Stateside after a few unhappy experiments.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-10-24 13:32|| 2010-10-24 13:32|| Front Page Top

23:56 gorb
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