I’ve heard a thing about what’s going on with those folks. I think what happens to those passengers will determine whether or not this story remains front page material. I don’t think the media’s tendencies will prevent it from being a story, that’s for sure.
That was my understanding. I think it also has to meet certain criteria for audibility and authenticity. IANAL but ISTM that that last item might be hard to prove.
On preview: Thanks for the link Squink, that was informative. My own research brought up this:
Biter.
Quit bitin’ mah style, sugar. 
Maybe. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s legal to record conversations where I am and the recordings are admissible in court.
I agree that it was stupid for him to go ahead with his travel, but somehow I can’t summon any outrage – I just feel sorry for the guy. He made a few stupid decisions and then found himself stuck in foreign country faced with the prospect of quarantine among strangers (followed by likely death). I’m sure he felt desperate to get back home to family and known medical options.
People do dumb things sometimes. They act especially dumb when they’re scared. I feel bad for him and hope that he makes it through and that he didn’t pass it on to anyone else.
Some one else (EddyTeddyFreddy?) already pointed out the inherent contradiction in this. If he thinks he’s dying, then he should know that he is clearly too sick to fly and expose others. If he feels that he can return home without infecting anyone, then clearly he didn’t believe he was dropping dead anytime soon. So which is it? “OMG, I’m dying and I have to get back to the US today,” or “I feel fine and didn’t think I presented a risk to others”?
The fact is, he hardly gave the CDC a chance to work with him to get him home. He basically just said, “Well, are YOU going to pay to fly me back from my honeymoon??” And when they say, “Um, well, we don’t really have a way to do that,” he just took off, leaving no contact information, IMO knowing that he would not be able to fly. But, he claims, I didn’t think I was infectious! But you knew you were on the no-fly list, asshole, so you clearly knew the fucking CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL thought you were infectious – to substitute your layman’s judgment for their professional judgment is arrogance. And he claims that Wah, I couldn’t afford to fly myself home privately! Bullshit – A personal injury lawyer, the son of a prominent attorney who is a partner in a major Atlanta law firm. Well then, cool your heels in Italy until the CDC can make appropriate arrangements or YOU with your extensive resources can make appropriate arrangements. He didn’t need to flee and leave THAT DAY.
But the fact is that he knew there was at least a possibility that he had XDR-TB BEFORE HE LEFT THE STATES. If he honestly thought that in the eventuality that was his diagnosis, that he was “dying” and had to get to Denver immediately because that was his “only chance,” then he would have been camped in the parking lot at the Denver Hospital, waiting to check in once the diagnosis is made, not strolling on a beach on Santorini.
I don’t think the guy is Satan Incarnate and I never said he was. But he is thoughtless and completely selfish. His actions were dangerous and IMO completely inexcusable. I understand he feels bad now – he should.
But it may be illegal in the state the person is calling from. Look for Linda Tripp phone taping.
Illegal as in “you could be prosecuted.”
The degree to which someone is contagious is not necessarily equal to the seriousness of their illness. Besides, I have never maintained that he needed to get to Denver immediately, only that he felt as though he needed to get out of Italy before his window of opportunity closed.
Show me a case where somebody got prosecuted for taping a call to their bank, credit card company, or whatever, and I’ll start worrying.
Careful. Word is Citibank and Chase have secret prisons that make Gitmo look like Sandals.
The reading I have done suggests that you may if you are making an interstate call to a two-party state and the other party has not consented. I wonder what the laws and penalties are for international calls.
Anyways, I regret derailing this thread and apologize. brazil84, good luck with your life in your tinfoil haberdashery/audio tape archive.
Sheesh, how about just admitting you were wrong about tapes being inadmissible in court.
I was wrong and was misled based on how things are handled in my own jurisdiction.
If he did not know of the problem, then why did he fly to Canada and then drive into the USA?
Go back and read my post #203. He knew IMHO. His own words pretty much admit that.
Well, my reading of Lane v. Allstate seems to imply otherwise. A man taped his conversations with Allstate employees in Nevada. The Nevada Supreme Court decided that the recordings were illegal and were to therefore be excluded from any civil suit, to the extent of forbidding any mention that the conversations even took place. It did overrule a lower court that had dismissed the case with prejudice. The NSC ruled that, since it was not obvious that the plantiff knowingly broke the law, the lawsuit should be allowed to continue.
Note that Georgia, where both TB guy and the CDC reside (present circumstances aside) is a one-party taping state. As long as one party to the conversations knows the taping is occurring, it’s legal. Cite.
Apparently Nevada has a special statute that allows for suppression of unlawfully intercepted communciations. NRS 179.505
Again, I am unaware of any general rule that makes illegally obtained evidence inadmissible in civil proceedings.
Well, talk of this airplane trip is officially on the road to being completely off the rails.
TB is not a sexually transmitted disease.