A 27 year old has been locked in Phoenix for perhaps the rest of his life. His crime? Having an uncurable highly transmissible form of tuberculosis, and refusing to take basic precautions like wearing a mask in public.
According to the AP (emphasis mine):
"Robert Daniels has been locked up indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of his life, since last July. But he has not been charged with a crime. Instead, he suffers from an extensively drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. It is considered virtually untreatable.
County health authorities obtained a court order to lock him up as a danger to the public because he failed to take precautions to avoid infecting others. Specifically, he said he did not heed doctors’ instructions to wear a mask in public"
This brings up an interesting dilemma, one that I brush on in my column tomorrow. When is it prudent to nullify individual rights in the name of public health? This is one of those cases where the public health department of Arizona has the imperative to prevent its citizens from being exposed to this deadly transmissible disease. This is not obesity or video games, but a deadly disease, and the Mallonesque victim refuses to protect others. What do you think? Is it in the best interest of society to keep him locked up so that we will not be exposed?
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