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TB Tinfoil

Since the current bug scare de jour is the drug-resistant Tuberculosis contracted by a globe-trotting Atlanta lawyer, I would be remiss if I didn't put in my two bits. Like Will Bunch, I too am wondering what the obsession is considering the guy is apparently asymptomatic and the chances of him having spread it are negligible. With the attention this is getting, you'd think he was coughing and wheezing like patient zero in the 1995 thriller Outbreak. Then again, maybe the news orgs are just waiting for the possibility of being able to change their chyrons.

Actually, the most likely reason this is getting so much attention is the fact that the CDC wasn't able to keep this guy from boarding several trans-atlantic flights. In the age of Bush when we are warned of the dangers of terrorists utilizing biological warfare, it doesn't look very good when our own government can't keep tabs on one lone guy whose actions are far less nefarious yet may have the same result nonetheless. But it's not really that much of a surprise when you consider that the CDC has had a scalpel taken to their budget so many times.

Some are curious about the timing of the events as well. Here's Jill from Brilliant at Breakfast donning her tinfoil hat:
Doesn't this seem just a wee tad odd to you?

I mean, what are the odds that a guy with a drug-resistant strain of Tuberculosis would be able to bypass all these safeguards and go on an overseas trip -- and his father-in-law is a TB microbiologist -- at the Centers for Disease Control?

I hate to get all tinfoil on you, but what the hell -- is this some kind of renegade experiment on the father-in-law's part? Or not so renegade? And isn't it interesting that this falls so closely on the heels of George W. Bush granting himself total control over the entire government in the event of a national emergency?

Ted discussed the order the other day. So would a TB outbreak be the catalyst for Bush taking over?

Perhaps it's time for a Surgeon General's warning.

(Filed at State of the Day)