Calls Reports He Defied Doctors' Orders "A Complete Fallacy"

Andrew Speaker -- the Atlanta-based attorney who has gained notoriety for boarding a series of international flights, even after he was told he carried a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis -- told Congress Wednesday that doctors told him he wasn't contagious, and did not order him not to fly outside the country.

"I didn't go running off or hide from people. It's a complete fallacy, it's a lie," Speaker told a Senate subcommittee by telephone from his Denver, CO hospital room, where he remains under quarantine.

Federal and local health officials replied Speaker knowingly took a flight back from Italy to North America, even after he was told he had a serious -- and potentially highly contagious -- disease.

Dr. Steven Katkowsky, director of the Fulton County (GA) health department, said officials told Speaker "No you should not travel" -- but that directive fell short of a direct order, according to ABC News.

"Was he ordered not to travel? The answer to that was no. The local health department does not have the authority to prohibit or order somebody not to travel," Katkowsky added.

Speaker maintains that in meetings prior to his departure to Europe, for his wedding and honeymoon, doctors "repeatedly" told him
"I was not contagious, that I was not a threat to anyone." Katkowsky countered Speaker's chart notes "he was not highly contagious."

For the moment, Speaker has not developed TB -- and none of the other passengers onboard flights Speaker took has tested positive for the disease. But many fear the situation could have been much worse... especially as a number of procedures intended to contain the possible spread of highly contagious diseases failed.

In separate testimony, US Customs and Border Protection officials told lawmakers a lone border officer allowed Speaker to enter the country from Canada, despite orders to detain him. Lawmakers scoffed at the notion the incident was an isolated case, however, saying the security failure exposes a number of problems with maintaining the nation's borders.

"We dodged a bullet," House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said, noting Speaker seemed to be several steps ahead of efforts to contain him.

"We should have connected more dots. Better -- or at least more complete -- policies and procedures may have made a difference in preventing Andrew Speaker from coming across the border," Thompson added.

The head of the Center for Disease Control told lawmakers the situation should never have proceeded that far -- that Speaker should never have been allowed to leave the US in the first place, and that he should have heeded doctors' advice.

"The whole issue of quarantine has been devoted to keeping people out," said Dr. Julie Gerberding. "It is the first time have had to address keeping people in our country."

Gerberding also believes US officials should have told Italian authorities to take Speaker into custody immediately, once it was known he carried the XDR-TB bacteria.

Instead, as ANN reported, Speaker was asked to turn himself in voluntarily... which prompted the man to fly back to Canada, out of what he called a fear of being treated outside the US.

"We gave the patient the benefit of the doubt, and in retrospect we made a mistake," Gerberding said.

FMI: www.cdc.gov