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.