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“If we can’t counter TB, how can we counter terrorism?”

By Michelle Malkin  •  September 9, 2007 06:19 PM

Since it’s politically correct to talk about tuberculosis only if the carriers are white, it’s acceptable for Democrats to point out the homeland security lapses that led to TB carrier Andrew Speaker roaming around the country and undermining domestic security and public health rules.

A congressional investigation into officials’ inability to stop a tuberculosis patient from leaving the country found significant security gaps, heightening concern about vulnerability to potential cases of pandemic flu or smallpox.

A report on the May incident involving an Atlanta lawyer who caused an international health scare found that the Centers for Disease Control lacks a sound way to prevent someone infected with a biological agent from entering or leaving the United States.

The review by the House Homeland Security Committee’s Democratic staff was to be released Monday, one day before the sixth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks against the U.S.

Since the Sept. 11 strikes, the government has focused on all types of possible threats and sought to find ways to best detect and counter biological agents.

“How we address these gaps now will serve as a direct predictor of how well we will handle future events, especially those involving emerging, re-emerging, and pandemic infectious diseases,” according to the report obtained by The Associated Press.

The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., added: “If we can’t counter TB, how can we counter terrorism.”

Good point.

“If we can’t counter TB, how can we counter terrorism?”

Now, just try and ask the same question about illegal immigration and tuberculosis.

Watch out for the spit.

Posted in: Tuberculosis

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Comments

  1. #1
    On September 9th, 2007 at 6:33 pm, Dersu said:

    MM said:

    “If we can’t counter TB, how can we counter terrorism?”

    Who said the demoncrats want to.
    I don’t think that is part of their plan.

  2. #2
    On September 9th, 2007 at 7:03 pm, katieanne said:

    Read today’s “Get Fuzzy”. Pretty much sums up the Democrats, IMO.

    http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/

    Democrats don’t have the spine to do anything except raise taxes. They can’t make the tough decisions about national security and from what I have seen, they don’t think there is a problem with US security or illegal immigration. Tell me…why would anyone vote for a Democrat?

  3. #3
    On September 9th, 2007 at 7:11 pm, Dandapani said:

    A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.

    - Alexander Fraser Tyler,’The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic’.

  4. #4
    On September 9th, 2007 at 7:12 pm, bear1909 said:

    The CDC isn’t what it used to be. I will leave folks to determine “why”.

  5. #5
    On September 9th, 2007 at 7:32 pm, zorro said:

    I wonder if the TSA has a plan to quarantine travelers (or entire airplanes) found to be infected with or exposed to TB or small pox or whatever? There are a lot of airports here in the USA, I’d bet half of them do not have a plan to deal with 200-300 passengers exposed to an infectious disease after some transatlantic flight.

  6. #6
    On September 9th, 2007 at 8:18 pm, Dr. Lead Based Paint said:

    A Columbia Farms chicken plant in Greenville, South Carolina half of 286 workers, mostly illegals, tested positive for TB and was reported in the newspaper on June 19. The media hushed the story and we are left wondering about how widespread the TB problem really is. Multiply this by thousands of locations around the USA and we have a serious health threat that our government will not acknowledge because the carriers are illegal aliens.

  7. #7
    On September 9th, 2007 at 9:02 pm, OldGuy53 said:

    You do know that TB can be spread if the person infected spits on you.
    Or breaths or talks in your direction….
    How Is TB Spread?

    TB is spread through the air from one person to another. The bacteria are put into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs or sneezes. Laughing, singing, or playing brass or woodwind instruments can also spread the germs in an enclosed space. People nearby may breathe in these bacteria and become infected.

  8. #8
    On September 9th, 2007 at 9:49 pm, crashemt said:

    It is a serious disease. Working in health care, I have been exposed countless numbers of times. Many times, I was fortunate enough to know the diagnosis, and wore proper protective gear. Sometimes, we weren’t so like. I have been fortunate to never convert.

    I have been started on and run courses of INH. It is not pleasant, but necessary after exposure and before the results are back in.

    IF you would like more facts on TB, please check the following link:
    TB Numbers Worldwide

    We are fortunate to live in an area with access to medications and care for these diseases, which makes their prevalence very low. Prevalence is also low in most Central and South America countries. Higher than the US, but low on average.

    Public safety is not on the minds of our politicians, unless it makes them and their constituents money. There is no money in TB treatment, but there is money in the slavery of illegal immigrants and in cheap labor.

    Remember that in the next election cycle

  9. #9
    On September 9th, 2007 at 11:19 pm, gunslingerpatriot said:

    The problem with biological agents is that it will affect each person diffrently depending on; age, gender, race (malaria specifically for people G6PD deficient/Positive for sickle cell anemia), weather conditions (most virues have a narrow temperature range to be contagious) and whether a persons immune system is compromised due to cancer or AIDS.

    As a retired Navy HM; I wasn’t to concerned about the biological agents that we have immunizations for (e.g. typhoid, tetanus, yellow fever, anthax and others)-but the biologicals that had been considered eradicated by the WHO and which people are no longer being immunized for such as Small Pox, and Polio.

    As far as TB is concerned, the only way a person is going to know that they have been exposed (prior to showing the later symptons) is to take the PPD skin test. If the test comes back with a 10mm or larger enduration, then depending upon one’s age treatment is begun.
    The point is that a person generally doesn’t know who exposed them during the interval between PPD tests. The most common exception is person living or working with TB patients or family member.

    Just my 2 cents worth…

  10. #10
    On September 10th, 2007 at 3:28 am, ChePibe said:

    Shameless cross post… accidentally first posted on other page

    When I went to Argentina for two years (thus the nick), I was forced to take a TB test - X-ray, mind you, not the pin-prick test - for my visa. I was told that this was for “reciprocity” reasons - we did it to them, so they did it to us.

    After serving as a missionary in the decaying slums of Buenos Aires for two years, coming into contact with many people that had TB, and picking up many nagging cardiovascular symptoms, the doctors here were almost sure I had it and rushed me through to X-Ray to make sure I didn’t. Luckily, I came up clean, although whatever I picked up while I was down there still nags me to this day.

    There’s a reason for the double standard - lots of them have TB. Very, very few Americans actually contract it here. Sorry, Latin America, but here’s the truth - you have a lot more health problems than we will ever have because your socialized medicine has failed entirely and you live in a state of poverty of your own creation.

    Releasing a kid like this is idiocy so long as he may have the disease. I speak from experience - I’ve seen what it does to people up close, and it’s not pretty. Releasing someone who has a contagious disease of this severity to the general public is lunacy.

    Had I been found to have TB when I got home (I had always just assumed my constant cold was just another one of the little ailments I’d picked up along the way and did not realize the gravity of the situation until I spoke with my doctor shortly after return), I would immediately have been subject to lengthy tests, antibiotic treatments, and placed under close supervision - and I’m a citizen! Letting loose an illegal, a kid who likely moves a few times a year and lives in close contact with far more people than I did is idiocy. Ship him back - let him enjoy the miracle of socialized medicine we all hear so much about from the left.

  11. #11
    On September 10th, 2007 at 8:59 pm, Leatherneck said:

    We get all kinds of stuff here from illegal aliens at the hospital I work at. The invasion, the diseases, and anchor babies the illegals bring is only part of the attack on American culture.

    Paid for by the United States tax payer. But, Chertoff, and Condi are doing a great job.

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Categories: Tuberculosis