CDC: 107 people on TB flights need tests

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

TB patient's relative to be investigated

DENVER - A federal microbiologist, the father-in-law of the man quarantined with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, will be investigated to see how he was involved in the case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday.

Robert Cooksey, whose specialty at the CDC is TB and other bacteria, and who attended his daughter's wedding, has said he provided "fatherly advice" to Speaker about traveling with the illness. Federal health officials said Friday that Cooksey had helped to find Speaker and diagnose his condition. They would not give any more information about the investigation.

Meanwhile, the CDC said it has withdrawn the federal isolation order for TB patient Andrew Speaker because a Denver health agency's order to detain him at a hospital there is sufficient to protect the public's health. The action ends the first federal quarantine order since 1963.

Speaker has said he, his doctors and the CDC all knew he had TB that was resistant to some drugs before he flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon last month. Speaker said he was advised at the time by Fulton County, Ga., health authorities that he was not contagious or a danger to anyone. Officials told him they would prefer he didn't fly, but no one ordered him not to, he said. Speaker was in Europe when he learned tests showed he had not just TB, but an extremely drug-resistant strain known as XDR.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_he_me/tuberculosis_infection
 
I don't get it either, if he's worried he will die in Italy, he knows he's sick with a contagious (forget just how contagious, let's agree it is) and life-changing and threatening illness.

So he gets on a plane.

The apology he made means nothing if any one person tests positive.
 
I think he lawyered up - in regards to leaving for his honeymoon - he took their orders like he takes case law - looked for the loophole rather than thinking about what it really meant. When the CDC and your doctors are recommending you don't fly, you shouldn't just be asking whether or not they legally can tell you no (which is what I'd bet is what he was doing when they recorded that meeting), to try to get out of any restrictions. You should be thinking abuot how serious it is that these people are talking to you.

He just went for the loophole, then hit the real world price for his fun trip (being in Rome when he finds out it's even more serious), and didn't want to pay it (a little delay, or some cost, to get back home).
 
angelmom said:
I am going to just agree to disagree on this. I am tired of arguing about it. All I know is that years and years of dealing with Fulton County makes me doubt a word that comes out of their mouths.
Click to expand...

I trained at Grady for 11 years, so I understand your attitude toward Fulton County, and I’ll give you that Speaker can make a case for leaving the country, although it is not the kind of case an “intelligent” man should make. Why blame Fulton when the CDC was processing the data and had told Fulton he was not infectious enough to restrict?? CDC got more data while he was out of country, and told him in no uncertain terms he was a risk to others. There is no doubt to what the CDC told him. He ignored it showing him to be an uncaring, totally self-absorbed moron. One can take the same drugs in Italy as here and the CDC would get whatever he needed to him there. If he had to record his doctors and try to find loopholes, he should know what he is doing is wrong. I agree with all who feel he’s looking at a human situation with lawyer eyes. He flat doesn’t care whether others live or die, just so he gets what he wants. He doesn’t deserve to walk among normal, caring people.
 
crypto6 said:
<snip> Why blame Fulton when the CDC was processing the data and had told Fulton he was not infectious enough to restrict?? CDC got more data while he was out of country, and told him in no uncertain terms he was a risk to others. There is no doubt to what the CDC told him. He ignored it showing him to be an uncaring, totally self-absorbed moron. One can take the same drugs in Italy as here and the CDC would get whatever he needed to him there. If he had to record his doctors and try to find loopholes, he should know what he is doing is wrong. I agree with all who feel he’s looking at a human situation with lawyer eyes. He flat doesn’t care whether others live or die, just so he gets what he wants. He doesn’t deserve to walk among normal, caring people.
Click to expand...
Well said.
 
The CDC is recommending that all 292 Americans on the flight with Andrew Speaker, have a skin test. So far, the CDC has contacted 160 of them directly.

Send your bills to Andrew Spaeker, in care of their law firm.
 
accordn2me said:
Well said.
Click to expand...

Thanks. What gets me so riled up is that in the face of his obvious total lack of concern for others, his lawyer buds talk about how great he is. They must have chucked their moral compass like Speaker did.

Crypto6
 
Gee one of my sons was in Viet Nam last September and went to the orphanages.
 
mostlylurking said:
His side of the story:

<A href=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18991217/site/newsweek/page/0/
Click to expand...
People always want to cover themselves" - he was thinking like a lawyer the whole time, not like a human being. They're telling him not to fly, and he's just trying to see the loophole, seeing their concern for public health as merely 'cover'. They tell him what he has, and he gets 3rd party word that it may be difficult to expensive to get back home, and all he can say is that he told them where he was going, so it's their fault for not forbidding him. And since they told him to get some dinner, that's permission to fly (even though they explicitly forbade that).
 
Buzzm1 said:
The CDC is recommending that all 292 Americans on the flight with Andrew Speaker, have a skin test. So far, the CDC has contacted 160 of them directly.

Send your bills to Andrew Spaeker, in care of their law firm.
Click to expand...


I highly doubt that the CDC is billing these individuals. People who have to get TB skin tested by local health departments aren't usually charged if it is due to them being a close contact to someone with identified TB (at least not in my area).
 
angelmom said:
But I don't think he realized the danger to others. They "advised him not to travel." They knew of his plans to get married in Greece and honeymoon in Italy; in fact, his plans for treatment in Denver were scheduled for after his honeymoon. So they knew he was going. No one told him not to go, just that they "preferred" he didn't.

For all he knew, it was for the sake of his health, not anyone else's. They had not told him to take any precautions around his family and friends, or even his fiancee. He felt fine and had continued about his normal life since January without them so much as reminding him to cover his mouth when he sneezed. No face masks, no gloves, nothing. My friend who is going through chemo has had more warning than this!

I'm not saying he was right to get on that plane and sneak back into the US, but I'm not sure what I would have done once I was already there. I really think someone at the CDC dropped the ball big time on this.

As far as the people on the planes and in the airports, the CDC is just covering their asses. If his fiancee isn't sick after being with him since January, a few hours on the plane with him is probably a very small risk. They are trying to generate another side of the story to deflect attention from their own screw up.
Click to expand...

I agree with this piece of the puzzle. I think the CDC left this man in a no-win situation and had to hang him out to dry to cover their missteps...perhaps that's why he's not being prosecuted.
 
My understanding is that TB is generally not caught by healthy people, if they are exposed - even if they are exposed a lot. It's immuno-compromised people who will catch it. So, his young, healthy wife would be unlikely to catch it no matter how contagious he was. But my grandmother, traveling for a visit, a new mother bringing her baby home for a visit, someone who has had an organ transplant or other health problems - if they're exposed to Andrew, it could be a very different scenario.

Everything seems consistient that he's not highly contagious, but he is contagious to some small degree. And with a high risk of death for anyone who gets it, that's pretty serious.
 
This is a direct quote from Andrew Speaker as to what the CDC said to him: "They said "we&#8217;d prefer you not to fly. ". He needs to stop feeling like he is being unfairly attacked and admitt he made a terrrible judgment call and apoligzie for that. What infuriates me is the lentghy legaleese he is spitting regarding his conversation with the CDC and his dad taping it. He and his dad started playing Legal babble with the CDC instaed of just accepting they were telling him he should not fly. He made a mystake he needs to own up to it and quit defending himself. Their is no defense for his actions except poor judgment and egocentrisim. He needs to quit pointing the finger at the CDC and point it at himself, apolgize and refocus his energy towards his own healing.

mjak
 
Details said:
My understanding is that TB is generally not caught by healthy people, if they are exposed - even if they are exposed a lot. It's immuno-compromised people who will catch it. So, his young, healthy wife would be unlikely to catch it no matter how contagious he was. But my grandmother, traveling for a visit, a new mother bringing her baby home for a visit, someone who has had an organ transplant or other health problems - if they're exposed to Andrew, it could be a very different scenario.

Everything seems consistient that he's not highly contagious, but he is contagious to some small degree. And with a high risk of death for anyone who gets it, that's pretty serious.
Click to expand...
And he was a young, healthy person who caught it.
 
ljwf22 said:
And he was a young, healthy person who caught it.
Click to expand...
Yep. Maybe he was sick when he got it, maybe he was exposed to someone highly contagious, or maybe it just somehow was missed by his immune system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 69 more.
Total: 3,602 (members: 70, guests: 3,532)

Online statistics

Members online
70
Guests online
3,532
Total visitors
3,602
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
604,339
Messages
18,170,853
Members
232,419
Latest member
Txwoman
Back
Top