

Florida accused of concealing worst tuberculosis outbreak in 20 years - pwg
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/08/florida-accused-of-concealing-worst-tuberculosis-outbreak-in-20-years/

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Agustus
Please do not link a news aggregator, the Palm Beach Post was the creator of
the story and should get the traffic.
([http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-
regional/worst-...](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-
regional/worst-tb-outbreakin-20-years-kept-secret/nPpLs/))

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sp332
_Believing the outbreak affected only their underclass, the health officials
made a conscious decision not to not tell the public, repeating a decision
they had made in 2008, when the same strain had appeared in an assisted living
home for people with schizophrenia.

“What you don’t want is for anyone to have another reason why people should
turn their backs on the homeless,” said Charles Griggs, the public information
officer for the Duval County Health Department._

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schiffern
>Believing the outbreak affected only their underclass, the health officials
made a conscious decision not to not tell the public

I love the part where homeless people aren't considered part of "the public".

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sp332
Of course they are. Homeless people were not informed either.

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schiffern
The implication is that it's ok when homeless people get TB. An outbreak that
is confined to that "underclass" should only raise alarm when it infects
people that actually matter.

And the number of cases isn't the metric used. Imagine if the TB outbreak only
effected owners of yachts? There's certainly fewer yacht owners than there are
homeless people!

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sp332
I know it sounds like class warfare but they're actually trying to prevent
that. _Believing the outbreak affected only their underclass, the health
officials made a conscious decision not to not tell the public, repeating a
decision they had made in 2008, when the same strain had appeared in an
assisted living home for people with schizophrenia.

“What you don’t want is for anyone to have another reason why people should
turn their backs on the homeless,” said Charles Griggs, the public information
officer for the Duval County Health Department._

Don't know if it's true, but it's at least plausible.

