Awww poor baby, was he tewwified being in “Old Europe”?
If he was so worried about his health he shouldn’t have gone to Europe in the first place. I find it truly scary that people are defending his actions. I simply can’t comprehend the mentality it takes to try to sneak back into a country when you’re told you’re barred from flying. There was no immediate danger of him dying, since the TB was supposedly not active (as evidenced by the fact he felt well enough to go to Europe in the first place).
Why didn’t he ask more questions, get more advice about the TB instead of immediately bolting for the Czech republic? Surely his family could have chartered a small plane to get him back into the country if nothing else worked.
There is absolutely no excuse for traveling and putting others at risk, no matter how minor that risk may be. That’s the point here. I’m sure everyone on that plane would agree.
So… if you are afraid you might die, it’s excusable to potentially expose someone else to your disease, as long as you get treatment and survive?? :rolleyes: How is that different from “I’ll save my ass, but my actions will endanger yours”. They used to shoot people for cowardly behavior like that in the military.
Perhaps they’re making a distinction between a federally-issued quarantine and a state-issued quarantine? Since the guy got the TB in Russia and could presumably travel back, wouldn’t that distinction just be a technical one?
I found Jodi’s comment in that thread very interesting.
One would think that things would change after that example–that either the gravity of their situation was explained better for them or that actual restrictions would be placed on these individuals. But I guess things haven’t changed all that much.
There seems to be a familiar theme here. The government claiming that it told the individual the severity of the issue, the individual either claiming not to understand or not understanding and then the government behaving in an ad hoc manner since there were no provisions for this kind of issue since they weren’t prepared for it.
Depends how much risk is involved. Anytime you exceed the speed limit in your car, you are imposing risk on other people. Heck, anytime you drive anywhere you are imposing risk on other people.
I don’t think he’s evil, I just think he’s a fucking dipshit. “Evil” would be coughing on every single one of those passengers intending to make them sick as well.
I am curious… did you meet him before or after he was all over the news? It would seem to me that Andrew Pecker would likely play the cherub to everyone he meets from here on out.
Not as usually defined, but you certainly could pick it up from kissing an infected person, and most people engage in spit-swapping as part of sexual intercourse.
Well, aside from the usual government bullshit of filling out forms in quintuplicate and the like, at a minimum you’d need to get a couple of pilots qualified to fly to Europe with the appropriate valid passports and visas and plan the flight. In addition, you’d probably need medical personnel and equipment to minimize the possibility of spreading infection to the flight crew. You’d probably also need to make arrangements on the other end as you are talking about transporting someone with potentially deadly, infectious disease and I’m sure Italy would have had something to say about the matter. On a holiday weekend on the US side.
24-48 hours doesn’t strike me as unreasonable, particularly as the person they were going to pick up wasn’t in imminent danger of dying.
Why am I not at all surprised that someone who knows the guy has shown up in this thread? I wouldn’t be at all shocked if he’s already hired a publicist to make sure he isn’t tarred and feathered when he is released from quarantine. He knows he fucked up LARGE and wants to make damn sure he doesn’t pay any untoward social consequences for it.
I think there’s enough blame to go around here, but I still have one question, the answer to which will put him firmly into the “Biggest Asshole” or “What” category for me:
He was informed that he had TurboTB and was instructed to report immediately to a hospital. He had been told previously that TurboTB would kill him if he didn’t get to Denver RIGHT AWAY. Therefore, he knew the health risk TurboTB posed, and by extension the risk he posed to others. If he really thought he had to travel immediately, and went to all the trouble of planning out the trip so he could fly into Canada to get around the ‘no fly’ rules, did he at least wear a mask?
What the fuck are you talking about? I said in my first post that I hardly have any contact with him. I didn’t know his last name until he showed up on the news.
That may be, but I really doubt – with the greatest respect to the Chicago Reader and the SDMB in particular – that he’d waste his money on hiring a guy to find message board threads that refer to him and reply with mildly defensive comments. If nothing else, he’s gonna need to save his money for the inevitable lawsuit that will occur if others turn out to be infected due to his dumbass behavior.
Anyway, I don’t see anything that smacks of “PR Shill” in Capatalist Lion Tamer’s posts. That type of poster is usually much more blatantly partisan and defensive. (Also, any guy who has a screenname that uses a semi-obscure News Radio reference – even a misspelled one – can’t be a mere shill. It’s just not possible. ;))
Thanks. I’ve been lurking since about 2000 (I may have even been a poster back when it was free, I don’t remember). I thought I’d give it a whirl & think about plunking down the 15 bucks, but I’m finding that I enjoy the arguments & discussions a bit more when I’m not a part of them.
My wife is 9 months pregnant, yet I found myself thinking about this thread last night lying in the bed. Maybe this posting thing isn’t for me.