TB patient's family releases tape

Wed Jun 6, 11:10 PM ET

ATLANTA - The family of a lawyer with a rare strain of tuberculosis released part of a tape recording Wednesday in which a health official is heard saying the man was not contagious and didn't need to be isolated.

Andrew Speaker, the subject of the first federal quarantine order since 1963, has maintained that officials never ordered him not to fly before he left for his wedding and honeymoon in Europe. Officials say he flouted their orders, and Congress is investigating how officials handled the situation.

On CNN's "Larry King Live," Speaker — talking from his Denver hospital room — said he had known since an X-ray in January that he had TB and had been taking a combination of four standard drugs to treat it.

Just before a May 10 meeting at which the tape was made, he said, he had learned that the bacteria in his lung were resistant to at least two of the drugs and that he would need special treatment at the Denver hospital.

In the tape recording — made by Speaker's father, Ted, also a lawyer — the patient asks about the hospital's accommodations.

"Now, that I don't know," says Dr. Eric Benning, medical director of the Fulton County health department. "But because of the fact that you actually are not contagious, there's no reason for you to be sequestered."

At another point on the tape, Benning says: "As far as we can tell, you are not a threat to anybody right now."

When King asked Speaker why he continued with his travel plans after learning that his disease was drug-resistant, Speaker said, "That doesn't make me any more contagious."

His wife, Sarah, said they would not have continued those plans if they thought he was dangerous.

"We made sure in that meeting that we were not putting anyone in harm's way," she said.

King said officials from the Fulton County health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were invited to appear on the show but declined.

A message left after business hours at the county health department wasn't returned Wednesday.

(This version CORRECTS quote from Benning.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_on_he_me/tuberculosis_infection_king;_ylt=A0WTUe.5oWdGmPgAAxta24cA

Ooh - Good Thing he had a tape recorder with him huh? Or he'd have gotten royally jacked around by the govt. But you see, it doesn't matter. The govt has achieved it's goal. A lot of people will never hear about the fact that the guy was never a threat. But even if they do hear it, what they'll remember is the emotionally charged fear surrounding this little stage play, put on for the govt's benefit, not ours. To the extent that enough people were panicked and senseless over this, they have won converts. Converts who will not hesitate to sign on to the most intrusive legislation the govt can come up with to interfere with our private lives and even claim grounds to take control of them - for the good of the public don't you know.

This is only one example of how they spin us. How they create emergencies where none exist and use the press to get worldwide attention and then they grandstand and make sweeping gestures and statements of intent to protect people. They scare people silly for no reason, and frankly they should be sued for that nonsense, but they won't be sued. Too many people are still shaking in their boots over the idea that there could be someone with cooties in THEIR neighborhood, and they just can't sleep at night because of it. They have left the realm of common sense and simple clear thinking and are heavily embedded, like ticks, in a huge sack of deep dark fear that they will not let go of. They want to be controlled and will not feel safe until they think everyone is under control.

Fear is bad for a healthy mind and a healthy republic. It's really true you know, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

But the govt scored big on this one. They laid the groundwork in a dozen different ways and all of these incidents will pile up in the back of our minds, slowly building a case to help the govt get what it wants from us without any struggle.

Although it won't have much luck with those of us who are hip to their tricks, like you and me, they've made plenty of headway with the uninitiated who would be offended at our insistence that having blind trust for rich criminal types is a bad idea.