TB Guy and Universal Healthcare:

[hedgehog]

What everyone is failing to notice in all the uproar is that TB guy was asymptomatic. He was diagnosed with TB when he went in to get a chest X-ray for some other reason. The TB was a surprise.

The real questions at this point are:

1. Where was he exposed?

2. How many people in Atlanta are walking around with this exposing other people?

3. How many of them will not see a doctor until they are on death's door because they can't afford health care?

[question everything]

1. You need longer exposure

according to the CDC people yesterday. This is why they emphasized the international long flight.

But what I wonder is who is paying for his treatment and for all the flight arrangements. His insurance?

[Fresh_Start]

14. longer exposure?

how about his coworkers....was their exposure longer than someone sitting on a flight with him?

[Rydz777]

2. Good points, but it is interesting that he will now forever be

known as "the TB guy." Long after everybody has forgotten his name, if you mention "the TB guy," it will ring a bell. He will be a big footnote in history, somewhat like Typhoid Annie. (Anybody remember Annie's last name? I don't.)

[Lobster Martini]

5. I'm not even sure you remember her first name-

Charles Darwin and Robert E. Lee had daughters named Annie with typhoid, but the most famous was Mary Mallon--Typhoid Mary. (I spend way too much time watching PBS.)

Cheers.

[Rydz777]

10. You're right, and I'm now sure I don't remember her first name.

[classof56]

6. Actually it was Typhoid Mary and her last name was Mallon.

Your post prompted me to google her and discovered an interesting article about her on Snopes.com. While she apparently wasn't responsible for thousands of death, she did leave a few bodies in her wake, so to speak.

[grilled onions]

3. Would There Have Been A Bigger Uproar If....

He was homeless,illegal or a minority?? :think:

[havocmom]

4. Been asking that last question for some time now.

Thinkin there are powers who want the herd culled. They want us off their future golf courses and onto the reservation they call Iraq.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. What has been ignored in the reporting

is that this guy is not the only recent American to be confined with drug resistant TB. There is another young guy in Arizona being confined.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/06/142246

[iamjoy]

8. How Horrible

Confinement is necessary in this case, but as much as possible should be done to make the PATIENT (not inmate) comfortable. That means a nice room, cable television and telephone. Being sick is not a crime, but I do understand the necessity of keeping people with communicable and fatal diseases confined.

Still, the confinement should not have the look and feel of incarceration. An ankle bracelet can do wonders, right?

[Dave From Canada]

9. 4. Fix illegal immigration. Anyone with TB or worse can walk across the border as thousands do

everyday. I don't understand why there is such a debate on fixing the problem.

[hedgehog]

11. Yeah, if those brown people want to cross the desert to come here

and scrub our toilets and pick our lettuce, the least they can do is promise not to cough their nasty germs all over the place!

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Let's just put masks on 'em!!

Then it will be easy to tell who is legal and who isn't!!

:sarcasm:

[Dave From Canada]

15. Strawman. It has nothing to do with race. I'm just pointing out that everyone seems so concerned

with the TB guy, when thousands of cases of TB or whatever can walk across the border any day of the week. Seems like priorities are a little messed up.

[ComerPerro]

13. good point there