TB patient slapped with felony charges

This is yet another story that shows the authorities making one stupid mistake after another and accomplishing nothing.

In 2006, county authorities in Phoenix, Arizona, jailed a man named Robert Daniels without any charges or trial. The reason? He had tuberculosis and failed to wear a mask in public to avoid spreading it. Instead of making sure he got treatment, they put him in jail.

Really? Further, if you ever see a person wearing a mask, it's a person with a weakened immune system trying to avoid picking up illnesses, not to keep from spreading them. You don't see very many people walking around downtown Cincinnati wearing masks to avoid spreading infections to others.

What gets me about them going after Daniels is that the government is so worried about the actions of one man while ignoring entire institutions that are infected. They don't seem too concerned about the MRSA outbreak in Seattle that sickened 65 people, the mutated cold epidemic in Oregon that killed quite a few, or superbug pandemics in hospitals and daycare centers. They keep extending the school year, even though the American school system is a giant Petri dish. I shouldn't have had to worry about getting the flu once a month in high school just because nobody bothered to make sure the school was reasonably clean. (The flu is potentially fatal.)

The hypocrisy is mind-blowing.

If Daniels was endangering the public, it was only through lack of knowledge, not malice. "Nobody told me how TB works and stuff," he said. Daniels never claimed he had a "right" to spread TB. Trust me, he was less of a public health menace than my first high school was. I'd feel safer if he had come to my home and coughed all over the computer keyboard than if I had spent just a half-hour at my former school.

During his year of being jailed without charges, Robert Daniels received no amusements. The sheriff's department - led by Joe Arpaio, who was already known for his "tent city" jails where he feeds inmates spoiled lunchmeat and makes them watch Newt Gingrich speeches (seriously) - maliciously took away the TV, radio, and phone from Daniels's cell for no apparent reason. They also refused to allow him to take a shower.

In other words, they were treating him not as a patient but as a criminal. They were warehousing him. Is that how America treats TB patients?

Last year, Daniels underwent lung surgery, and doctors decided he was no longer contagious. But Arizona authorities continued harassing him. So he fled to Russia, where he'd have more freedom. Daniels specifically cited harassment by Arpaio as a reason for fleeing.

Arpaio then announced he was going to have Daniels arrested for reckless endangerment, even though his tuberculosis no longer posed a threat to others. The dour lawman cried that Daniels was under a court order not to leave the U.S. If he's such a threat, why do they want him in the U.S.?

Now Robert Daniels has been indicted on felony charges of unlawful introduction of a disease, even though prosecutors admit there's no evidence he actually exposed anyone to TB. Meanwhile, he's lived in Russia ever since fleeing Joe Arpaio's fiefdom.

If they try extraditing Daniels back to Arizona, I hope Russia tells Arpaio to shove the extradition warrant up his ass. If Kentucky has a law covering unlawfully introducing diseases, I'd also like to see my old high school indicted.

(Source: http://columbiacritic.blogspot.com/2007/04/man-with-tuberculosis-jailed-for-not.html;
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/09/health/main3347931.shtml;
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jAZcFs8-asSLXGzG3az_hEV3AC3AD8VK83F81)