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Typical Republican Tea Party Trick - Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret.

by cmaukonen 7/9/2012 - 11:01 am

A big H/T to a facebook friend for bringing this to my attention. This story from The Palm Beach Post epitomizes the kind back handed governing that the tea party/republican governors engage in. PR and money over people.

The CDC officer had a serious warning for Florida health officials in April: A tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville was one of the worst his group had investigated in 20 years. Linked to 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, including six children, it would require concerted action to stop.

 

That report had been penned on April 5, exactly nine days after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill that shrank the Department of Health and required the closure of the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tough tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years.

As health officials in Tallahassee turned their focus to restructuring, Dr. Robert Luo’s 25-page report describing Jacksonville’s outbreak — and the measures needed to contain it – went unseen by key decision makers around the state. At the health agency, an order went out that the TB hospital must be closed six months ahead of schedule.


And as I understand it this particular strain has made it's way into the general population now as well.

In his report, the CDC’s Luo makes it clear that other health officials throughout the state and nation have reason to be concerned: Of the fraction of the sick people’s contacts reached, one-third tested positive for TB exposure in areas like the homeless shelter.

 

Furthermore, only two-thirds of the active cases could be traced to people and places in Jacksonville where the homeless and mentally ill had congregated. That suggested the TB strain had spread beyond the city’s underclass and into the general population. The Palm Beach Post requested a database showing where every related case has appeared. That database has not been released.


So good people, if you have recently visited the fine Sunshine State of Florida and your doctor tells you you may have TB, you can thank Rick Scott and his Tea Party supporters for it. Because you know that with them money trumps all. All this to make sure that the tourist businesses, utilities and rich retirees don't have to pay any more in taxes.

 

And the republican convention is supposed to be held in Tampa. This should prove to be very interesting now indeed. Wonder what they will do it this show up there in a large number of cases.

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Wonder what they will do it this show up there in a large number of cases.

Would this be called justice?

by Resistance 7/9/2012 - 11:08 am

So, with any luck, after the convention, Mitt Romney's doctors will be heard muttering, "TB or not TB, that is the question ..."

by MrSmith1 7/9/2012 - 1:21 pm

"Black Plague" is what these idiots will call it

They'll find some Florida minister, claiming it a sign from heaven.

by Resistance 7/9/2012 - 1:29 pm (re: MrSmith1)
This is big news here because it is a drug resident strain. They have found it in Miami now. Rick Scott is incompetent and no common sense and has sorrounded himself with incompetence. This is a infection that don't care if you are rich or poor. I know the DCCC has published this in a newsletter. If the infection count keeps going up, this will be a game changer in politics. GOP can go ahead and keep their hissy fits going about PPACA and deficits but if there are typhoid Marys walking the streets? People don't care how much it costs to get it under control and get rid of it. I am old enough to remember the polio epidemic in the 1950's and how scared my mother was that her kids would get it. Cuba has a cholera pandemic going on right now. My grand kids doctor told me that Florida coastal areas was the country's first line of defense for infectious diseases. He was seeing and treating diseases that he was told in Med school he would probably never see in this country. I cannot imagine any Governor blowing off a warning report from the CDC. The crazy right wanted to close that hospital and cut back the health department before but Charlie Chris said no. There are 3 homeless camps about a half mile from me. A Salvation Army Shelter was built a half a block from the closes elementary school to me just a quart of a mile. This became a BFD this past week in this neighborhood.
by trkingmomoe 7/11/2012 - 6:04 am

Drug resistant strains of any of these diseases are a BFD. Keep safe momoe.

And why is this not being yelled about even in the online media ?

 

Did somebody put out the word to shut the fuck up ?

by cmaukonen 7/11/2012 - 6:43 pm (re: trkingmomoe)
I first saw it in DCCC newsletter and then DKos . There is a regular from Florida that blogs there. The blogger made reference to the news letter, which I had just read before going to read blogs and local papers. We have not had a highly contagious out break epidemic in decades that all it takes is a sneeze or cough to spread it. A person can have it and be contagious with very little symptoms for months. I just think there is a lot of incompetent people running the state and they didn't take this serious. The decreased numbers that was used to justify the major cut backs don't match with the increase of cases from the last couple of years that was actually going on in Duval County. I also know that the tourist trade don't like this kind of thing to be talked about so there is pressure coming from that. What they now tell us that it is in the general population and as high as 3000 people could have been exposed on the east coast. They are really not sure how this is going to play out.
by trkingmomoe 7/12/2012 - 2:39 am (re: cmaukonen)

And why is this not being yelled about even in the online media ?

Some quick pastes from a quick Google News search, leaving out the coverage by many Florida media sources:

Florida Tuberculosis Outbreak: Rick Scott And Department Of Health Respond To ...

Huffington Post - ‎15 hours ago‎
As soon as the Department of Health (DOH) saw a slight spike in the FL0046 Tuberculosis strain, we immediately reached out to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and engaged stakeholders in the community. As soon as the CDC site visit ...

Worst tuberculosis outbreak in 20 years kept secret as Florida shuts TB hospital

Daily Mail - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
By Daily Mail Reporter With 13 dead and 99 sick, a recent outbreak of tuberculosis in Jacksonville, Florida, was the worst in decades - but nobody knew. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control tried to warn lawmakers of the dire situation, ...
 

Florida closes only tuberculosis hospital amid worst US outbreak in 20 years

The Guardian - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
Health officials in Florida hastened their closure of the nation's only dedicated tuberculosis hospital on cost-cutting grounds as one of the worst outbreaks of the deadly disease in 20 years was taking a grip on the state, it has been revealed.
 

Florida Shuts Down Only TB Hospital During Worst Outbreak In 20 Years

International Business Times - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
By Ashley Portero: Subscribe to Ashley's RSS feed What do you do when facing the worst tuberculosis outbreak the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen in 20 years? If you're Florida Gov. Rick Scott, you downsize the Department of ...
 

The Palm Beach Post exposes a hidden menace

Columbia Journalism Review (blog) - ‎15 hours ago‎
By Trudy Lieberman Reporting on tuberculosis is not most reporters' idea of a glamor assignment. It's an ancient disease, drug companies aren't keen to develop blockbuster medicines, and, anyway, few people get it, right? Wrong.
 

TB Outbreak Ignored in Florida

Daily Beast - ‎Jul 10, 2012‎
In April, an official from the Centers for Disease Control warned Florida officials that a tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville, Fla. which had killed 13 and sickened 99 people was the worst his group had seen in decades. But the report, issued as the ...
 

Rick Scott's Budget Cuts Have Undermined Florida's Response To Tuberculosis ...

ThinkProgress - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
By Guest Blogger on Jul 9, 2012 at 11:45 am In April, a Center for Disease Control investigator warned Florida health officials that a Jacksonville tuberculosis outbreak was one of the worst he had seen in 20 years. The CDC's letter cautioned state ...
 

Florida Ignored The Worst Tuberculosis Outbreak In 20 Years

Business Insider - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
... said he did not know about the CDC report. When informed, he said that money would be allotted and he told the Post that "there is every bit of understanding that we cannot not take care of people who have a difficult case of TB." Tuberculosis.

Florida Covered Up the Worst Tuberculosis Outbreak in 20 Years

The Atlantic Wire (blog) - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
What happens if you're facing the worst tuberculosis outbreak the CDC has seen in 20 years? If you're Florida Governor Rick Scott, it involved covering up or ignoring the fact, signing laws shrinking the state's Department of Health, and shutting down ...
 

Florida officials scramble after TB outbreak revealed by press

Examiner.com - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
Related topics TB Tuberculosis Florida media outlets are reporting a serious tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in the Jacksonville / Duval County area. The outbreak had not been made public until today by state and county public health officials, ...
 

Rick Scott's TB scandal

Salon - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
Rick Scott signed a bill that slashed the state Department of Health's budget and closed a state hospital where bad cases of tuberculosis were treated. Nine days later, the federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) detailed in a report that Florida was ...
 

Worst U.S. TB outbreak in decades was not made public

Vaccine News Daily (blog) - ‎Jul 10, 2012‎
Despite a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report detailing the worst US tuberculosis outbreak in 20 years, Florida health officials continued to push for the closure of a local TB hospital. The report was sent to health officials by ...
 

Florida Officials Kept Secret Worst TB Outbreak in 20 Years as Leading TB ...

AllGov - ‎Jul 10, 2012‎
Officials in Florida concealed a federal health report warning of a serious tuberculosis outbreak, while at the same time Governor Rick Scott approved the closure of a hospital that specialized in caring for TB cases. The Centers for Disease Control ...
 

Florida in Worst TB Outbreak in Decades

Newser - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff (Newser) – Florida is in the midst of the worst tuberculosis outbreak the CDC has seen in two decades—and the Jacksonville outbreak was largely hidden from the public, finds the Palm Beach Post in a disturbing report.
 

Florida Shuts Down Lone TB Hospital Amid TB Outbreak

Comedy Central (blog) - ‎Jul 9, 2012‎
Instead, the problem is tuberculosis, because why the hell not? We already have debtors' prisons and calls for the re-establishment of child labor, so an outbreak of consumption among our country's most vulnerable populations is a nice touch for the ...

 

by artappraiser 7/12/2012 - 3:09 am (re: cmaukonen)

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