Cooksey and Speaker's May wedding on the Greek island of Santorini was their last real freedom before becoming health fugitives.
"It was this very long walkway to get to him, and it was in San Turino which has these beautiful white domes everywhere and I came through the little gate," Cooksey said of the wedding day. "I could see him the whole time and the vows were beautiful, and it was very nice, very nice."
The couple shared the traditional wedding kiss and vows to stay together "in sickness and in health."
[snip]
"I say to [other passengers on their flights] with everything I have, I'm so sorry," Cooksey said. "I'm praying very much that nobody else tests positive. That's something I could never forgive myself for if that happened. In all the contact he's had, no one has it yet, and I pray to God that nobody does."
Yes, so very sorry -- but hey, no horrible and highly communicable respiratory disease is going to interrupt our magical wedding on Santorini, and nothing's going to keep us from coming back home on our own terms! We're privileged Americans, you see, and though we knew exactly how sick Andrew was, you passengers just have to ... understand.
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This comment is not in any way related to the moral issues being debated. I was just wondering if anyone has considered the fact that he was "diagnosed" in January. Obviously he had the disease sometime before the diagnosis. It seems to me that they should be traking down not only the passengers on the plane but a whole host of other people.
So I guy who's father-in-law works for CDC is allowed to tour the planet for 5 months and nobody stops him. Very enocuraging.
I wasn't aware the father in law told him not to fly. The stories I read he said if he ever thought his daughter had been in danger he would have done something. (ie, he didn't think it was that big of a problem).
I'm still trying to get over the fact that there are people in America who have to be told that TB is potentially deadly.
I could swear that I remember being taught about some TB epidemic in a history class as a child, but maybe I learned more because it was Catholic school (@_@)
Regarding whether Mr. Speaker knew he was infected, see here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/01/news/health.php At least by this account, he was diagnosed with TB prior to leaving the US, but they didn't know what strain it was, and the CDC didn't explicitly forbid him to travel.
HOWEVER, coming back was a different story. While he was abroad, they identified the strain, and he was told, _in no uncertain terms_, what type of TB he had, and that he was not to travel.
So while we might quibble about his decision to fly out of the US after being diagnosed with a then-unidentified TB strain, he clearly knew what he was doing when he decided to fly back to the States. It is this latter decision that I find truly egoistic & reprehensible.
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