Lab tests released Monday have confirmed that the airline passenger on Thanksgiving Day who reported he thought he had cholera was correct.
The passenger was a doctor who had been treating cholera patients in Haiti. He boarded a plane from the Dominican Republic to Miami – a flight that is barely long enough to serve pretzels and announced on the flight he had cholera symptoms – meaning he knew he was infected when he got on the plane. People fleeing an epidemic to save themselves is exactly the dynamic that causes an epidemic to spread rapidly.
And he was a doctor? Don’t they teach them anything these days? He could have chartered his own flight if he deemed he was in need of quick medical attention that he could only get in the US. Also, isn’t there some preventitive things he could have done in Haiti to avoid getting it?
If he exposed people on that flight needlessly to cholera, and someone else gets sick, then I think he should be liable for those people’s care and their outcomes.
And face charges if someone dies.
There is really no way he could expose someone on the flight to cholera. Cholera is a waterbourne disease; therefore, in order to get infected with it you would have to consume contaminated water. Why he announced it on the flight…who knows, but no one was in any danger. Now that jackass prick lawyer from Atlanta with TB who boarded the flight to Europe a few years back and then tried to sneak back into the US from Canada. He definitely fit that bill.
He told the crew so he would be met at the airport and get immediate medical attention. I agree that he was not a big risk, as he was trained in the disease and sought immediate treatment. What it did expose though is that there is a hole in the airport and/or immigration screening that allowed someone to get onto the plane while sick. Hopefully our public health and sanitation rules will prevent the spread from any infected people who arrive from Haiti who don’t self-identify their condition
I poked around on an air flight site and the options to fly from the Dominican Republic to Miami involve changing planes in Puerto Rico (or somewhere in the US way out of the way where you would expect a big Dominican population, like JFK in New York.
Another subtext is how he got from Haiti to the DR – since the outbreak, they’ve been worried about the disease spreading to their side of the island. Their screening process seems to have a hole.
Has Michael Savage talked about this? Spread of disease by immigrants was the issue that launched his radio career
Savage has had guest hosts for the last couple of days – some guy I didn’t recognize and the guy from A team.
I’m sure he will address this when he returns, ’cause like you said that’s how he made his rep.
I miss Savage’s screaming.