She is being held in a jail room specially equipped for isolation and treatment.
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Woman with untreated TB finally in custody—held in “negative pressure” room
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Thank god. It's ridiculous that a) it came to this, and b) that it took so long to capture Tuberculosis Mary. Hopefully she didn't infect anyone while on the lam.
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I can't remember, but did this nutjob ever say what was driving them to live with and spread tuburculosis to their community? I'd think it would be uncomfortable af to live with and would rather be treated and feel better. It would be some malevolent shit if they got their rocks off spreading pestilence too. The whole thing is bizarre.
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Her appointed lawyer noted they she also has fairly serious and untreated mental illness, that impeded her comprehension of the situation.
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Im particularly curious to her dubious reasoning for avoiding treatment, and to see if there is any overlap between her excuses, and that of the antivax, and maga crowd dissonance.
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Not an especially weird dichotomy because no, Covid doesn't necessarily cause long term issues in 1 in 10 people, the range for estimated rate of long covid is fairly huge, some estimates are as low as 3%. And respiratory viruses always had the potential for post-viral symptoms. My octogenarian mother sailed through covid but is still feeling the effects of another infection she had shortly after. Should we isolate everybody with a cold because it could cause pneumonia in an old person?
Then there's the fact that the case fatality rate for untreated covid is now tiny compared to the CFR for untreated TB, the costs for treatment for TB is high, drug resistance is rising, etc etc etc
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TB's mortality rate is around the 50% area if not treated, so it's definitely a significantly higher risk than COVID.
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Negative pressure rooms are pretty common. When NYC had its Ebola patient a few years back he was kept at Bellevue Hospital because it used to be an old TB hospital and had isolation rooms with negative pressure. We also built them for COVID patients.
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I feel like medical privacy is such an important cornerstone of our healthcare system I feel it needs be in the constitution...right up until a persons privacy and diagnosis is flaunted and it the potential to cause serious illness to others. In her case there should have been flyers posted so everyone knew she had an infectious disease and wasn't taking steps to isolate.
My issue is that in any other situation her face would be posted everywhere with a reward except for this one. That bothers me. If it gets to where courts are mandating you be arrested you get your face plastered everywhere.
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I can't find the source, but I thought it had been reported previously that there was either a language barrier or a developmental barrier or both and that this wasn't an example of @sshole-freedumb-itis as the motivation for running.
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It would be some malevolent shit if they got their rocks off spreading pestilence too.
Papa Nurgle is so wholesome, though.
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Wonder if the health authority will be putting out posters asking have you had close contact with this person? If so please call this number for more information and complimentary TB testing.
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Nah man; this has "Amazon Original" written all over it. Let the bidding war commence!!
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It's good that they went through a deliberative process to take this last step of jailing her for the public good.. but JFC why did the process take SO LONG ? She's running around actively spreading a very nasty form of TB.. it feels like this should've been litigated and dealt with within 2 weeks. And yea, I get that the sherrifs can't spend their whole day looking for this lady.. but it feels like they could've tried harder.
If this was the Boston marathon bomber she would've been found within hours. Granted, a different level of threat and public panic.. but sometimes the LEOs need a kick in the ass to get moving.
If this was the Boston marathon bomber she would've been found within hours. Granted, a different level of threat and public panic.. but sometimes the LEOs need a kick in the ass to get moving.
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There's really only enough material for one season though, so that makes it a perfect Netflix fit YES I'M BITTER OVER LOCKWOOD & CO., WHY DO YOU ASK?! [teeth grinding noises]
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Years ago at a party a paramedic friend of mine casually dropped that a patient he transported that day had TB, but he wasn't aware until they got to the hospital. I assume that person was genuinely unaware, but doing so on purpose should be a crime of some kind.
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Edgar Allan Esquire
Ars Tribunus Militum
Is the media landscape that desperate for more content for consumption?
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This is an indictment of our society's appalling lack of resources and care for our mentally ill citizens. Reading about her repeated refusals of isolation and treatment indicated a complete misunderstanding or denial of the seriousness of her condition. It's unfortunate that arrest was the option here, but a necessary step for her to get treated and to protect the other citizens in her community.
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From what I've read (and assuming it's all true), it's a perfect storm of mental illness, language barriers, and cultural resistance to Western medicine that all contributed.
Something that I think should be called out more is that she apparently can still choose not to be treated. Treatment of an active case can be for up to 9 months, and IIRC, she had previously been prescribed the treatment drugs but refused to take them. So it's not like they can trust her to say she'll do the treatment and then release her. So what's the plan if she continues to refuse treatment? The morbid reality could be that they keep her detained until the TB kills her.
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To me, this sounds like an attorney doing their best to protect their client; and I wouldn't discount that this woman does in fact have a serious mental health condition. However, it's difficult to believe she lacks the mental capacity to understand the ramifications of her illness, but has the mental capacity to evade law enforcement for as long as she did.
It's obviously for a court or jury to decide and not some rando in an Ars forum, but if that rando were on the jury it would take some serious convincing.
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"She was transported in a vehicle that had the air separated between the cabin and the back of the vehicle," he added.
Sounds like a pickup truck. In which case good choice for air circulation in this extraordinary case.
Sounds like a pickup truck. In which case good choice for air circulation in this extraordinary case.
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Youd be surprised how easy it can be to avoid law enforcement if you dont really have a apartment of your own or a job. Feels like this woman was living amongst friends and relatives.
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Why is negative pressure in quotes in the title? That's a pretty normal thing - you use negative pressure to stop things from getting out in the air (because air will naturally move into the room from the outside, instead of the reverse), and positive pressure to stop things from getting in (because air will flow from inside to outside). Typically this is done by pumping filtered air in (for positive pressure) or air out through a filter (for negative).
A practical example is PCs - a common recommendation is to make sure you have more inflow of air (with filters over the intake fans) to reduce the amount of dust that gets in your case. (I.e. positive pressure, so dust won't just float in.)
A practical example is PCs - a common recommendation is to make sure you have more inflow of air (with filters over the intake fans) to reduce the amount of dust that gets in your case. (I.e. positive pressure, so dust won't just float in.)
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In a brilliant and cunning enforcement strategy, law enforcement finally outsmarted their cagey foe. They knocked on the door of her fucking house.
Amazing.
Amazing.
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I think it's pretty clear from some previous stories that she's mentally ill. Not that there isn't likely to be a significant overlap.
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Understanding and accepting the need for proper treatment and evading law enforcement are also two very different things from a cognitive perspective. I don't have a hard time at all imagining that someone with mental illness could manage to do the second while completely failing at the first. Doubly so if they don't have stable housing.
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This took long enough.
Disease control agencies need success stories right now, to demonstrate their competence, after the massive issues that occurred in initial COVID response. The public needs confidence that they are being looked after.
Taking over a year to detain someone running around with tuberculosis—a disease so serious Washington state has a set of laws dedicated to its prevention and control specifically by name—does not help with that.
Disease control agencies need success stories right now, to demonstrate their competence, after the massive issues that occurred in initial COVID response. The public needs confidence that they are being looked after.
Taking over a year to detain someone running around with tuberculosis—a disease so serious Washington state has a set of laws dedicated to its prevention and control specifically by name—does not help with that.
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I’m not sure how much they were actively evading law enforcement, given there was at least one occurrence of law enforcement “surveilling” her without picking her up.
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