TB surge: CDC asked state to tell public (Florida)

[seafan]

Source: Palm Beach Post

Florida’s TB outbreak, dubbed the worst in the nation in 20 years, flourished as state and federal health officials placed political concerns and protocols ahead of informing the general public, documents and interviews show.

More than 4,000 emails among staff at the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, show how a disease outbreak became secondary as Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s staff advanced his political priorities to downsize and privatize much of the department.

The emails, which span 2009 to mid-2012, portray CDC staff as consistently deferential to the state, even as their concerns about Florida’s handling of a deadly TB outbreak grew. A key worry: A disease cluster, once confined to the homeless, apparently had affected two Jacksonville teens in 2011, an indication it might be reaching new communities.

Also concerning to CDC epidemiologists, Florida appeared to have no plans to inform the public. In fact, months after the CDC recommended wording to warn the public, the outbreak remained undisclosed.



Read more: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional/tb-surge-cdc-asked-state-to-tell-public/nSckf/

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As all of this was going on last year, outside of public knowledge, Governor Rick Scott and the GOP-controlled Legislature were simultaneously pushing legislation to outsource health department functions; dismantle the centralized Department of Health; eliminate the position of the state health officer; eliminate positions of epidemiological investigators and environmental health officials; and to close Florida's 60-year-old TB hospital in Lantana.


As a result, Florida's only TB hospital, A.G. Holley sanatorium in Lantana, is now closed. And critically important, separate departments have now been merged.



Rick Scott and this GOP-dominated Legislature are a scourge on the state of Florida.


These people are endangering the health of all Floridians, in their pursuit of money, power and control.


They must be stopped, and now.



Vote every single one of these thieving GOP traitors and fraudsters OUT in November.


Where is justice for the beleaguered people of Florida?

[Enthusiast]

1. TB?

The private market can take care of it. :sarcasm: