Anybody listening to Andrew Speaker (TB Guy) on MSNBC?

[MadBadger]

He is selling me on this being the government's fault and not his. I think a lot of people owe this man an apology (Billo).

[malaise]

1. Watching on CSpan 3 n/t

[jdlh8894]

2. Scary!

A lawyer and you can't see his mouth move?

[jbonkowski]

3. He has an agenda too.

Remember, he is trying to rehabilitate his image and is worried about getting sued by people he knowingly exposed.

The story is not as big a deal as some want to make it, but he DID worry more about his wedding than the health of others, including his fiancee.

jim

[MadBadger]

4. Hasnt the wedding thing been debunked?

[TXN in WA]

7. I totally agree.

I think his actions were selfish, and he knowingly put others in danger, regardless of the fact that he insisted the threat was low. How many of those people would have chosen to board the plane w/ him, if they'd known what he is infected with? Also, he moved up the date of his departure and from what I understand, changed his itinerary so he could get back to the U.S. This doesn't sound like he didn't know it would be a problem.

This guy is a jerk.

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. Cons are hugely pissed off! And not because Mr. Speaker acted how he did

but because the illusion of "we're safer because of President Bush" has once again been shattered to smithereens. On CSPAN3 just a bit a go, Mr. political witch-hunter Lundgren was fuming and his (seemingly) endless excuses/defense for the Bushetals are nowhere to be heard! LOL!!!

[kestrel91316]

6. I happen to think he is LYING when he claims that health authorities

told him he was no public health threat at all. That's just nonsense.

And his FIL would have known full well that pulmonary TB, even if the bacteria cannot be seen on a sputum smear, is a major POTENTIAL health threat. Medical microbiologists, especially of his apparent caliber, are NOT stupid. A lung with an untreated tennis ball-sized mass full of TB bacilli could AT ANY MOMENT become a major problem if the disease progressed to actual damage to airway wall integrity. Remember, advanced TB can cause PULMONARY HEMORRHAGE due to erosive processes in the pulmonary tissue.

They probably told him he was not currently a severe contagion threat, but also that at any time he COULD BECOME A WORSE THREAT.

People who are in public health KNOW this, and their job involves communicating this to affected people in order to minimize risk to others. It's what they do for a living, and they take their jobs very seriously.

It reminds me of the rabies case I saw almost 20 years ago where the cat's owners were in severe denial, got hostile with me when I recommended quarantine and reporting the cat, and proceeded to do the exact opposite of every safety recommendation I made when they took the cat back home against my advice. To this day I have absolutely NO idea why anyone in their right mind would behave so irresponsibly, with such utter disregard for other peoples' lives. But I saw it with my own eyes.