Same-Sex Marriage Bill REJECTED in New York State Senate
UPDATE: City To Remove 14 Blocks Of Bike Lanes On Bedford Ave.
Catholic League Pissed at PETA
Hamster Rides The 4 Train
Bouncer Beatdown at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club
A man being treated for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis and who was advised by the Centers for Disease Control not to travel was briefly quarantined at Bellevue Hospital after he sneaked back into the U.S. in an effort to evade a travel embargo. He is now being detained under armed guard in an Atlanta hospital. The patient, who was in consultation with the CDC prior to traveling to Europe and scheduled to receive advanced life-saving treatment in Denver, had left the U.S. with his wife on their honeymoon to Greece. The CDC had attempted to hand-deliver an official directive barring him from traveling, but were unable to contact him before his departure.
When the patient contacted the CDC after receiving a message from the organization (a CDC official called the patient who was in Rome), he was informed that he needed to turn himself in to Italian health authorities and that it would be necessary for him to be confined for an indefinite term for treatment. Since the treatment he was already scheduled for in Denver was cutting edge and not available in Europe, the man considered the instructions an untenable option and he decided to make a run for it.
The Georgia man and his new wife were told that his passport had been flagged and that he was on a no-fly list, so they flew to Canada and crossed into New York state by car. He then voluntarily reported to a New York City hospital and was held at Bellevue for 72 hours. Now he's back in Atlanta and upset with the CDC officials, who have invoked a rare authority to hold people against their will, last used in 1963.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution interviewed the patient, who is claiming the CDC was fully informed of his travel plans and that he was only told health officials "preferred" that he not carry through with his trip. The CDC officials appear to feel that their restraint was taken advantage of and are now pulling out all the stops, with a spokesperson noting that its "covenant of trust" in dealing with potentially deadly disease carriers had been breached. The unnamed patient is very unhappy and contacted the Atlanta Journal Constitution to air his side of the story:
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the paper. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."The CDC is working with the commercial airlines the man took in an effort to identify anyone who may have been exposed to the drug-resistant strain of TB. It concedes that there is a low risk he transmitted the disease to other travelers, but feels it's necessary to take every precaution.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that was once a leading cause of death in the developed world. It usually attacks the lungs and public health campaigns in the early 20th century concentrated on reducing behavior thought to hasten its spread, like coughing and spitting in public. Successful drug treatments were only discovered in 1946, but resistant strains have developed with very low rates of occurrence in the general population recently. NYC actually has its own Bureau of Tuberculosis Control.
Mary Mallon became infamous in the early 20th century as Typhoid Mary. She was a New York woman who infected scores of people with typhus typhoid fever, a different disease from TB (and apparently also different from thyphus!). After spending three years confined on North Brothers Island, she was released on the condition that she refrain from working as a food handler. Mallon agreed, but later obscured her identity and went back to work, ironically as a cook at Sloan Hospital, sickening more people and effectively killing two. Public health officials had her quarantined for life, and she spent 23 years in captivity before dying of pneumonia in 1938. She is buried in the Bronx.
TB plush from Giantmicrobes
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
How intelligent can you be if you have a serious, communicable disease that you have been told is extremely resistent to treatment and you still essentially trap people in an enclosed space for up to eight hours? You had to sneak back into the country, but didn't think you were doing anything wrong? Maybe the CDC shouldn't have been so nice, but I believe the words I'm looking for in regards to the patient are "fuck" and "you".
ooh, Canada's borders are easy to get through?
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the paper. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."
Sounds like he'd fit in in New York. "I'm so smart that other people couldn't possibly know what they are talking about. And it's my right to do what I want no matter who I put in harms way."
How come they don't mention the race of this guy?
I say he's white, and selfish.
He has no excuse for not turning himself into the authorities in Rome once he had been reached by the CDC. Taking that flight home exposed hundreds- not just the airplane, but the airports, the cab he probably took, the hotel, etc. If anyone has been infected, he should be arrested and charged.
Great, now there's a global search for all the people this guy had contact with on the plane and anywhere else. Including the Rental Car. Can you imagine all the people he may of put in Danger? I feel bad for anyone who may contract this strain resistant TB.
Did I mention that this guy's a lawyer?
Of course, he's white.
He is going to be responsible for killing some Roman's grandmother- he WILL be sorry.
Actually, Typhoid Mary carried typhoid fever, which is different from typhus.
Consider the CDC's actions in all this. The man has a deadly disease, and the only treatment available is at a hospital in Denver. He wants to get married first, and asks the CDC if it's okay for him to go to Europe for a honeymoon. They say it's okay.
The CDC then decides that the disease is too contagious for the man to be allowed to travel. They tell him to report to the health authorities in Italy, a country where he probably knows no one and where his health insurance is unlikely to provide coverage, and that's not even mentioning the fact that the only treatment is in Denver. He then asks, very reasonably, if the CDC can bring him back to America using its own plane - and is told there's no money in the budget!
As far as I'm concerned, the top brass at the CDC should be fired on the spot and forfeit all their pension rights.
The AJC interview with the TB groom is great. He complains about the CDC not flying him back on their jet immediately and insists the CDC didn't explicitly say he couldn't go on his honeymoon.
The other person is right, typhus and thyphoid are different organisms. Typhus is a tick-borne disease and typhoid is what typhoid mary had. See the NYC department of health webpage and then click on the health topics A-Z and click on typoid fever.
If this guy isn't a posterchild for Entitlement, I don't know what is?
TB is not your common cold.
I hope when they do the autopsy on him, they'll see he has no heart. and his karma payback will never end for generations and generations.
He's a lawyer, he has health insurance, he has money for a honeymoon to france, greece, italy etc.
I wonder if his -- cough, cough -- new bride has anything to say about marrying someone down half a lung from the start.
I don't care how "intelligent" this guy says he is - he is clearly a selfish asshat.
Sounds like a typical governmental F-up mixed with bad communication and an "entitled" individual. It's not unusual, in the case of Mycobacterium (TB is only on of 'em) for it to take weeks for a bug to be detected. Then it can take weeks more to determine the bug's sensitivity to the treatment drugs.
If I was the guy (or his wife) & knew I had active TB, I would've put plans on hold (if I were the fiance, I would've avoided him like the "plague").
The feds obviously didn't communicate well. Although mandatory quarantine laws have always been on the books, they are hesitant to use them.
PATRIOT 1 & 2 (not that our pres and any lawmakers have actually read what they signed) provide other "emergency" powers. If this guy got drunk and said something like he'd like to see W strung up, he'd probably be shakin' bugs out of his sandals in Gitmo by sunrise.
HIPAA (from Bubba) says that nobody, even in a public health emergency, can tell people who he is. So for all you folks in the wedding pics, smile, take a deep breath, and cough your lungs out.
Did the groom do the traditional dance/hug/kiss with his mother-in-law at the wedding?
Bofug
The guy's a lawyer - his karmic retribution already puts him in reincarnated sand flea territory.
Yep, TB guy is Andrew Speaker a white guy.
even though his passport was flagged the customs guy let him through because his skin was white and his name was not almed or muhamed.
TB or not TB, you answer the question.