TB or Not TB: Lawyer Involved in 2007 TB Scare Sues CDC

Andrew Speaker, the lawyer to cause an international health panic by getting on an international flight with tuberculosis, has filed suit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for invasion of privacy. In his complaint, he blames the CDC on the breakup of his marriage, claiming that the couple went through with the wedding but then broke up after the wedding and never turned in their marriage license. He insists that he never had the worse form of TB, though critics insisted that he did not know that until after he was quarantined.

Speaker objects to the release of his name and personal information. Speaker flew to Greece for his wedding and his international flights causes a national uproar and congressional hearings in 2007. The CDC held a press conference stating he had a rare form of drug-resistant TB. He objects to the fact that the CDC did not say that he was not contagious and that it knew he was going to fly to Greece.

Speaker became the first American quarantined by the federal government since 1963 even though doctors later discovered that Speaker was infected with a less severe strain of the disease.

In his lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, the complaint alleges “Speaker became the object of unwanted public attention, including expressions of public scorn and contempt (including death threats) due to the inaccurate light in the information presented, resulting in so much strain on his marital relationship that he and his new bride parted ways after the wedding but before filing the marriage license.”

Speaker himself was sued by nine passengers in 2007. Reports indicated that his legal practice dried up in the course of the controversy.

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