Man accused in TB scare can sue: U.S. court

[The Straight Story]

Man accused in TB scare can sue: U.S. court

ATLANTA — A lawyer who sparked an international tuberculosis scare in 2007 after he flew to and from Europe while infected with a rare form of the disease can sue the U.S. government, an appeals court ruled on Friday.

In a significant legal win for plaintiff Andrew Speaker, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a lower court and said he could sue the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for allegedly disclosing his identity and confidential information relating to his treatment.

It made its ruling on grounds there was a "reasonable inference and thus a plausible claim that the CDC was the source of the disclosures."

Speaker gained notoriety and became the first U.S. citizen quarantined by the government since 1963 when he was sent to a hospital in Denver for a perilous form of tuberculosis after returning from his wedding in Europe.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39799918/ns/health/

[Heddi]

1. Fuck that guy. Regardless of how "virulent' his strain of TB was, he DID have TB and put countless

people at risk by being on that plane.

The fact that he was told to NOT fly a commercial airliner, and then did fly commercially on a long-haul flight, with recycled air, shows what an asshole he was.

I wonder if the people who were exposed on that plane, in the airport, in the hotels, etc, who may have had to undergo TB surveillance, are going to sue his stupid ass?

[Posteritatis]

2. Of course, the ruling says nothing about his right to *successfully* sue over this whole debacle. nt

[ThomCat]

3. If he doctors cleared him to fly,

and the his treatments weren't scheduled to begin until he came back because it wasn't communicable, then this was an overreaction. And, as he charges, it was probably an overreaction for political and funding reasons.

"Fuck that guy?" That's very incredibly harsh.

Are you a doctor?

Are you HIS doctor?

Are you qualified to make medical decisions about whether he could travel?

[kestrel91316]

4. He was an ass who put countless lives in danger. Fuck him.

[ThomCat]

5. That's jumping to a conclusion.

Nobody knows if that's true.

I love the way people assume that if someone has an illness he must be a dire threat. Nobody asks his doctors.

This is an OPEN INVITATION to all kinds of ways to discriminate against people with illnesses.

Is that what we want? Do we really want to make it that easy to quarantine anyone and everyone who had an illness of any kind based on mindless fear?

Based on politics? Based on a government agency's need to justify their budget?

:wtf:

Didn't we have enough of this hysteria during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic? How quickly it all resurfaces!