The Psychology of Illness, Part III

I have a chronic disease, but thank goodness, it isn’t contagious. I can come and go as I please, without worrying about the effect my proximity may have on my fellow human beings, and without the paranoia that the Center for Disease Control [CDC] might put me on a “no-fly” list.

American health care is the best in the world, even if it is outrageously expensive. I think there’s a cause-and effect relationship between cost and quality, but, that’s just me.

Speaking of “me”, that seems to be the only person Andrew Speaker was thinking of when he pulled his little international travel stunt recently. Despite stern admonitions from the CDC that he should not travel because he’s infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis, Mr. Speaker went skying off to Greece and Italy. Okay, it was an important occasion: he got married and went on his honeymoon. Given his potentially infectious medical condition, however, it begs a question: why couldn’t he have gotten married in Atlanta, or wherever he and his fiancée lived, and couldn’t they have then driven to Niagara Falls, or Vegas, or Branson, Missouri?

When the CDC finally caught up with Speaker in Italy, they told him to remain where he was, and cease all travel. Instead, this guy and his new bride hopped on a flight to Canada, and then attempted to sneak back across the border into The States in a car. They were detained, and Mr. Speaker—a lawyer—is now in quarantine under armed guard…as he should be.

What Andrew Speaker did was one of the most arrogant, defiant acts I have ever seen, short of terrorism and mass murder. Ayn Rand long-ago defined the necessity of self-regard and the importance of acknowledging the ego, but I don’t think hammerheads like Speaker were what she had in mind when she wrote The Virtue of Selfishness. It’s not like Speaker is some grade-school dropout with a limited understanding of the English language. He’s a college and law school graduate. If someone tells him something—verbally, or in writing—he can comprehend it.

When the CDC told him not to travel, they meant just that. As I used to ask my children, “What part of ‘no’ do you not understand?” Maybe the guy was just hot to impress his wife. She seems to love him, and if she truly does, then she would have overcome her disappointment at canceling the wedding and honeymoon in Europe, and suggested pleasing alternatives that they could have enjoyed within the continental United States, without the benefit of public transportation such as flying.

The attempted Canada-US border sneak shows that Mr. Speaker was aware of the potential criminal liability that his actions incurred. (That law school training was good for something, I suppose.) He claims that he was doubtful of the quality of Italian health care, so he defied the CDC’s instructions to remain in that country. This—and his statement that he was fearful of dying in Italy—also indicate that he was fully aware of how seriously ill he is, despite a lame assertion to the contrary in explaining why he defied the CDC the first time. “I didn’t know how sick I was” doesn’t jibe with “I didn’t want to stay in Italy because I’m so sick”. He knew exactly how ill he is, and he also knew the potential consequences of his actions.

There is a continuing uproar over this incident, and some of the passengers who shared airplanes with Mr. Speaker are beginning to add their voices to the mix. They are not happy, and who can blame them? I have been in a couple of situations where I was potentially exposed to TB in close quarters, and to this day I thank God that I dodged that bullet. I normally try to take trains when I travel, but every once in a blue moon I have to haul my carcass onto an airplane and share the pressurized, recirculating air with everyone else on board. My primary concern is that the airliner doesn’t break and fall out of the sky; now I’ll have to worry that some selfish squirrel like Andrew Speaker might be aboard, coughing something contagious into the enclosed atmosphere.

The talk is that although Mr. Speaker may not face any criminal liability, he may be subject to civil torts for his reckless endangerment of others. I’m not a lawyer, and never played one on TV, as the saying goes, but that’s exactly what Speaker’s actions constitute: reckless endangerment. I’m not a big fan of litigation, but had I been aboard an airliner with this man, I’d be lawyered-up and ready to take a swing at him. I wish him well in the battle with his illness, and will pray for him in spite of his arrogant attitude. However, someone should provide him with a Bible to pass those long, lonely hours in quarantine. It’s not just his body that needs healing; his brain needs a little maintenance, too.