Would you sit next to him in a trasatlantic flight?
How much risk is reasonable to impose on others in order to significantly improve your own odds?
And how much risk is reasonable to impose on others just so you can get home and start drinking beer 5 minutes earlier?
Depends what I would get out of the situation. But if we were all already on the plane, and a little old lady was sitting next to him and wanted to trade seats with me, I would do it no problem.
Perhaps one ought to stay in the country where The Only Possible Lifesaving Treatment is available while one’s “odds” are being calculated.
The guy is an asshole & not too bright. Even “regular” TB should have convinced him to sit tight & get treatment.
I just hope that before he boarded the airplanes he announced that he had TB so all the people on the plane would have the option of getting off. Particularly the people like me who have had TB and would have a hard time surviving a second bout of it.
If he didn’t, he is in for a buttload of lawsuits. If I were on one of those planes, I’d get together a class action suit.
He was apparently told he wasn’t contagious. Hindsight is 20/20.
Hold up here a second–I thought all TB was contagious. Are there noncontagious strains or are some just more passable than others? Is there a time period when the TB sits and incubates and doesn’t feel like going to another person?
I’m not being a smartass here, I honestly don’t know.
There is no such thing as non-contagious TB.
There are a lot of things about this guy that indicate he is fairly bright. Did you catch the part where he was accepted to the Naval Academy?
Is not to possible to have TB, but be essentially non-infectious? I mean, to be infected at such a low level that transmission is very unlikely?
I don’t think anyone is making that claim so much as they are saying that the degree to which he was contagious when he took the flight was near zero.
IANAD. However, back in the day when I was teaching, we were all required to have a chest xray to prove we did not have TB. I asked why we couldn’t just have the tine test. I was told that “By the time we’re adults, just about everybody has been exposed to TB and will test positive on the skin test.” I had never tested positive, but had to have the xray as a condition of employment.
Reason for the story: According to this, and to other things I’ve been told, it’s possible to harbor TB, dormant within your body, and not be either ill or contagious.
Yeah, sorry for the whole Ad Hominem thing. I don’t know what I was thinking. Wait… maybe it has something to do with moronic statements like the one above.
You clearly don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about.
appicable: adj.(ap/pic/able); Used by persons who are incapable of using the blended consonants pl. Common typo on message boards. 
Random thoughts:
I feel sorry for this guy (Speaker) now. Yes, he did a gravely stupid thing. No, I don’t approve of it. Given human nature to put off remote negative consequences in favor of short term pleasures, how many of us can HONESTLY say we would not enter denial and just go? I am not defending him, but this thread and story has made me think about behavior and attitudes. Also, given today’s HIPPA laws, how did his name become public? I haven’t seen mention of the process (not that I looked that hard).
Some upthread have mentioned fast/reckless drivers. I think the analogy holds but to a limited degree. Driving is something most of us do every day. We are accustomed to the inherent risks and dangers, in fact, most of us discout them and flat out ignore them–we use our cell phones, eat, talk, read maps, argue, sing, make out, discipline our kids etc–all while driving. None of that behavior is safe. But we know the risks, we are familiar with them, comfortable.
But illness and disease, particularly contagious illness, is different in people’s minds. There is still that fear of contagion and death. I think that is why there is so much disapproval and condemnation here and elsewhere. Again, I’m not defending his actions. People would and do deplore reckless drivers, but it is accepted as part of our convenience and culture. People are appalled and express shock and dismay, but we move on. Possible (however improbable) infection with a(pontentially) deadly illness does not evoke the same response-rightly or wrongly, people fear contagion more than bad/reckless drivers. Or so it seems.
If nobody actually comes down with TB, the lawsuits will be something of an uphill battle. Believe it or not, courts are pretty hostile to lawsuits where the plaintiff wasn’t actually harmed. Has anyone actually gotten a million dollars for finding something nasty in their Wendy’s chili? I doubt it. People would have to sue for negligent infliction of emotional distress.
It would be interesting to find out which country’s law apply.
You can test positive for TB (that is, for antibodies to TB) without having TB. Once you’ve tested positive, you will test positive ehether or not you had TB and whether or not you were treated for TB.
I haven’t seen real proof on what the guy was “told.”
However–he knew test results were pending. And that a particular result would make a particular hospital in Denver “his only hope.”
But he went overseas, anyway.
I haven’t seen anyone dispute the degree to which he was contagious. Speaker’s doctor has confirmed his claims, as I have quoted a couple of times in this thread.
I agree, though, that I would never have left the country in the first place. However, I haven’t been living with a disease for 5 or 6 months.
He made a specific claim about what he was told, and said that he had a tape recording. The health authorities made a vague statement that his story was “not accurate” and objected to the (apparent) fact that they’d been tape recorded.
To me, that means it’s more likely than not that he’s telling the truth.
When did he learn that the hospital in Denver was “his only hope”?
Do you know what you’re talking about? Are you involved in the legal profession at all?