The TB Carrying Happy Wanderer

Lawyer Andrew Speaker, the XDR-TB patient who traveled internationally last month while infectiously contagious, testified from his Denver hospital to the US Senate that the Center for Disease Control knew from 10 May that he had XDR-TB and that he planned to travel to Europe for his honeymoon. Senators are querying why the CDC did not sequester him or prohibit him from traveling. Once Speaker was contacted in Italy by the CDC, he realized that his only way back into the USA would be to avoid the passenger name checks of Western European airports. He traveled to Prague and caught a flight from there to Montreal. After hiring a car, Speaker drove through the US/Canada border point at Champlain NY. The US Border Guard noted his name was flagged but decided to allow him through due to Speaker not appearing to be ill. After Speaker turned himself in he was quarantined in the National Jewish Memorial Hospital's Infectious Diseases ward in Denver for further diagnosis. The Andrew Speaker case has now become a cause celebre and focused attention on the chaotic processes within both the CDC and Customs and Border Patrol. Related Link
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