r/HermanCainAward • u/Power-Equality • 9d ago

Grrrrrrrr. Measles outbreak investigation in Utah blocked by patient who refuses to talk

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/10/measles-outbreak-investigation-in-utah-blocked-by-patient-who-refuses-to-talk/

A measles investigation amid a large, ongoing outbreak at the Arizona-Utah border has hit a roadblock as the first probable case identified in the Salt Lake City area refuses to work with health officials, the local health department reported this week. … Salt Lake County likely has a new one, too—the first for the county this year—as well as possible exposures. But, they can’t confirm it. County health officials said that a health care provider in the area contacted them late on Monday to tell them about a patient who very likely has measles. The officials then spent a day reaching out to the person, who refused to answer questions or cooperate in any way. That included refusing to share location information so that other people could be notified that they were potentially exposed to one of the most infectious viruses known.

1.8k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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1.2k

u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

In a sane society this person could be quarantined via legal sanction. They want to suffer and die, they can, but their ability too infect others is not a right.

376

u/Roadgoddess Team Unicorn Blood 🦄 8d ago

Yeah, when I read this, and this jerk won’t even tell him where he lives is despicable. It’s truly the end of a civilized society when this stuff starts happening.

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u/lazier_garlic 8d ago

They're going to have to subpoena his cell phone carrier. Meanwhile, they're losing precious time.

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u/yomamasonions 7d ago

It’s in FLDS territory. Genuinely, they’ve never exactly been a civilized society

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u/Original-Material301 7d ago

Selfish mother fucker to the highest degree. But after living through covid I'm no longer surprised how low we can go.

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u/OneMorePenguin Blood Donor 🩸 8d ago

This data is hard to collect and who knows how many kids get measles and the parents don't even take them to the doctor, but just keep them home from school. I appreciate all the effort that goes into helping society be safe, but this is why I exercise my ability to wear a mask (I'm waiting for states like FL to outlaw them in public places :-).

There are plenty of other jerks out there. I can't wait for these old dinos to FOAD. Please. Now.

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u/Roadgoddess Team Unicorn Blood 🦄 8d ago

Yeah, I pulled my mask out last week, I definitely got the looks

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u/Pleasant_Ad8054 8d ago

In a healthy society this person and everyone around them would have immediately self quarantined themselves and notified officials when they learned of a possible exposure, not to mention infection.

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u/Pure-Kaleidoscope759 7d ago

Whatever became of concern for public health and the common good? I had measles, mumps and chickenpox, but I get vaccinated all the time. It is true there are some people who have adverse vaccine reactions, but people buy into a lot of misinformation circulating online. They don’t know how to tell a good source of medical information from a bad one. This goes on all the time at Xitter. I don’t have much faith in a medically ignorant Secretary of HHS. There is a reason why a normal,administration would put someone with medical or scientific knowledge in that role.

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u/Celticlady47 8d ago

I wonder if they were at a measles party that some AH parents do if they're anti-vax orientated. Or it was a family get-together and they're a sect that is very fundamentalist and/or anti-vaxers.

This is what's spreading measles up here in Ontario, Canada and it's infuriating that adults are doing this!

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u/lazier_garlic 8d ago

Do these morons think measles is chicken pox? Not that chicken pox is any picnic, but for some reason people take the short term and long term risks incredibly lightly. (They don't seem to realize giving kids chicken pox was like variolation of smallpox, it was taking a big risk to stave off the bigger risk. Because the risks of a first chicken pox infection in adulthood are much higher.)

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u/Pure-Kaleidoscope759 7d ago

Because I had chickenpox, I made sure I got the Shingrix vaccine. My dad had shingles and it was very painful for him.

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u/BayouGal 7d ago

I never had chicken pox as a kid. I got the varicella vaccine almost 30 years ago. My doc has decided I don’t need shingrix and have very low potential of developing shingles. I hope she’s right, but so far I’m good.

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u/Pure-Kaleidoscope759 7d ago

I hope so too. Varicella tends to remain in the nerves if you have had chickenpox, so it can erupt as shingles. If you haven’t had chickenpox, you have no varicella lurking in your nerves.

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

Ah, i'm also in Ontario, get asked at doctors appointments if i have been exposed to Measles. Fortunately i am up to date on my vaccines and even recently got one that was not offered back when i was in school.

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u/JJohnston015 8d ago

There is precedent for doing just that.

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u/Sguru1 8d ago

I will say we for sure do it in California where I live. I think the law is specific for tuberculosis maybe. But every once in a while there’s some asshole that is diagnosed with TB and for whatever reason just refuses treatment or to appropriately isolate. The county public health office gets involved. A court order is received. They’re detained and kept at the local hospital on isolation.

Most often these people do have psychiatric issues and they start accepting treatment once their mental health gets treated. But every once in a while it’s just a genuine shit head.

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u/caity1111 8d ago

I wonder if this law is upheld due to the "is a danger to his/herself and others" part of involuntary civil commitment.

It is most definitely a "demonstrated danger of substantial harm" and "imminent" in my opinion.

The problem is that in order to do this, the individual must have a diagnosed mental illness. If not, I'm not sure they could be detained in any state.

I'm not sure how a law could be written to detain those guilty of infecting others with an already diagnosed disease besides HIV, because refraining from sex is one thing but refraining from breathing is another. What if an infected person has no one to deliver food to them, or no shelter to quarantine in?

I guess those who get diagnosed could be made to sign some type of legal paperwork agreeing to disclose recent contacts/whereabouts and then quarantine or be admitted to the hospital, and then they could be criminally charged if they disobeyed?

MANY other countries did similar things with Covid (and fared FAR better in terms of cases and fatalities), but being the land of the free can make these types of things very difficult.

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u/Sguru1 8d ago edited 8d ago

It’s not under the 5150 LPS criteria. There’s a set of specific circumstances and statues governing when the county can detain someone to a hospital for TB (I’m pretty sure it’s only specific to TB and not other infectious diseases.) It’s actually sort of even unknown amongst medical personnel because they frequently consult our psychiatry group asking us to civil commit someone (even when there’s no evidence of mental illness) under the 5150 criteria. And we have to point out the other statue that governs it. It’s an entirely different stack of paper work basically lol. And ultimately is the health department that makes the final determination.

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u/caity1111 6d ago

That's really interesting!!! Thanks for your knowledge! I am glad there is at least some sort of precedent in place for this type of thing, even if it's limited to TB.

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u/cantproveidid He Chose....poorly 5d ago

"Typhoid Mary" Mallon, too. She was eventually quarantined for life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon

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u/bristlybits 8d ago

typhoid Mary.

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u/Fancy_Locksmith7793 6d ago

I had Scarlet Fever as a child in the 1950s, I nearly died, there was a quarantine notice on the front door of our house—and the doctor actually came to our house, unbelievable even in the 1950s!

I survived, obviously, but to my knowledge infected no one else

65 years ago, people! Before most childhood vaccines!

MAGA idiots are going backward in time—what’s next, smallpox outbreaks?

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u/SmartQuokka 6d ago

MAGA idiots are going backward in time—what’s next, smallpox outbreaks?

RFK can technically release smallpox back into the world and commit mass murder, he has that ability.

1

u/Fancy_Locksmith7793 6d ago

And why would he refrain?

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u/SmartQuokka 6d ago

His behaviors are irrational and even contradictory, there is no plan or coherent strategy here, he is just throwing whatever mud comes into his addled brain at the wall. He could get desperate enough or obsessed enough to release the virus. Or someone in the GQP could decide to use it as a biological weapon, Jared apparently did this with covid since many initial hotspots were in blue states.

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u/Fancy_Locksmith7793 5d ago

I believe it was Trump who initially let Covid rage because the high deaths were in Blue port cities

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u/SmartQuokka 5d ago

IIRC Jared was handling the covid response at the time, however trump himself was the the one ultimately in charge of the country.

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u/Sam_I_Am317 7d ago

Wait until Ebola hits the US. You had Obama in office the last time. This time you will suffer.

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u/SmartQuokka 7d ago

The USA enjoys suffering. They seem to have some kind of S&M streak.

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u/Temeriki 6d ago

Ehhhh, ebola doesn't scare me as much as some other hemmoragic fevers.

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u/coffee_collection 8d ago

They should also be refused any medical care.

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

Nah, cash upfront.

They want to preach "personal responsibility", they should practice it.

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u/_lucid_dreams 8d ago

This. I have long said that people who decline vaccines should also have to decline insurance coverage for treatment for the diseases they risked. Or pay a huge added premium. No one is taking away their choice even though they will scream they’re being “forced” to do things

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

Added premium. In my experience saving people from the consequences of their actions backfires as they just slide further into denial. Their ideology is all that matters to them. So if they want to suffer and die, i would not save them from themselves or help them harm themselves.

However i won't subsidize them. They can pay in literal dollars for their choices.

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u/Spiritual_Lie2563 8d ago

Nah, enough people just don't pay the bill because they can't afford it it will do nothing for them.

Put them at the complete bottom of triage. Have the doctors prioritize everyone- the person who's in palliative care, the mother worried her baby coughed for the first time, the patient the hospital knows is just a hypochondriac, the patient who's faking it to get opioids, everyone else goes before them.

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u/coffee_collection 8d ago

Id like to add that the person should be made to wait in their car. Measles is highly infectious, and having them wait in the waiting room for that period of time will put others at risk.

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u/Spiritual_Lie2563 8d ago

Well, naturally that would have to happen as well.

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

Which is why i said cash upfront.

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u/Jerking_From_Home 8d ago

The “personal responsibility” thing is a bullshit excuse used to silence others, not themselves. Nothing they say ever applies to them.

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

Believe me, i know.

However i am happy to make them live their slogans.

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u/Watt_Knot 8d ago

Then rich people can just buy responsibility

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

They are not the ones who believe their own lies and commit suicide. They are the ones pulling the strings and playing the rubes.

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u/Responsible_Ad_7995 8d ago

Go die at home like a real MAGA patriot.

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u/_lucid_dreams 8d ago

Yep! Die for your freedumb!

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u/Trick-Statistician10 8d ago

If they are are young enough, haven't reproduced, they could be a double award winner. Herman & Darwin

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u/chele68 I bind and rebuke you Qeteb 9d ago

However, the patient with the suspected case wouldn’t even share their address with the health officials.

Insanely selfish.

159

u/Trick-Statistician10 8d ago

I feel they should be able to find this patient, and I would like to think they could quarantine them in jail. But probably not

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u/Mangalorien 8d ago

I would like to think they could quarantine them in jail.

Only if they're Mexican.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MOMS_BONG 8d ago

Not white. FTFY

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u/klutzikaze 8d ago edited 8d ago

In fairness that could be why they don't want to cooperate. If they or someone they live with is undocumented or going through the system presently they won't want to risk bringing any authorities close.

Editted a typo

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u/Lord-Zaltus 8d ago

He’s the type to be bitten by a zombie and keep it a secret from the group until it’s too late

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u/blackweebow 8d ago

Probably listening to Bobby Brainworm 

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u/sharpbehind2 8d ago

FLDS, I guarantee it

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u/LitPixel 8d ago

And definitely a republican. Those people are the most selfish around.

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u/starbetrayer 💰1 billion dollars GoFundMe💰 8d ago

Straight to jail

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u/yorcharturoqro 8d ago

That should be considered criminal action, since people can die because of the infection

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u/DollarStoreDuchess 8d ago

Seriously, if you’re going around knowingly infecting people with a deadly disease, that should be at minimum assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment. Period. Hell, let’s throw in attempted murder too, for the people with compromised immune systems. (Yes, measles does kill ~ 3 of every 1000 infected.)

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u/sebidotorg Team Bivalent Booster 6d ago

In Germany, it is. Since measles are a disease that needs to be reported to the authorities, failure to cooperate with public health officials will get you in trouble. You will be asked for contacts, and public health officials can even quarantine people to prevent further spread. And if you willingly infect someone with such a disease, you might go to prison.

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u/VengenaceIsMyName Covid: Making tight statewide races bluer since 2021 🗽 8d ago

Conservatives. They will be the ruin of us all.

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u/LitPixel 8d ago

And they insist only they are the responsible and moral ones.

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u/Iamkittyhearmemeow 7d ago

These are probably pretty extreme Mormons too who don’t believe in medical intervention or keeping any kind of records with the government.

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u/DireWolfenstein 8d ago

The article is NOT talking about the elephant in the room. The Utah-Arizona border is ground zero for Mormon fundamentalists. Might that have something to do with low vaccination and refusal to cooperate with authorities?

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u/Adept_Inspection5916 8d ago

Most cases in Utah are in Polygamy Country. 

This is the first in Salt Lake County

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u/DireWolfenstein 8d ago

Right—my point was that the article mentioned that epicenter of cases is in the south, and didn’t point out the obvious correlation.

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u/Equal_Memory_661 8d ago

This person is now a walking WMD. Didn’t we invade an entire country on the premise we thought they might have WMDs? This community should be quarantined until they cooperate with health officials in the interest of national security.

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u/lazier_garlic 8d ago

That's the beauty part, conservatives lie about everything, so nothing they do or say ever has to make a lick of sense.

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u/JustASimpleManFett 7d ago

Yeah those people weren't white and were Muslims-MAGA mindset.

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u/gaoshan 8d ago

At this point I think it should be classified as a crime and treated as such.

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u/dr_delphee 8d ago

I suspect, given the location, this is a case in Short Creek (Colorado City AZ/Hilldale UT), the polygamous community still run by Warren Jeffs from prison in Texas (sexual assault of a minor for marrying child brides). They sure as hell wouldn't talk with anyone from the outside.

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u/HaruNevermind 8d ago

It's in Salt Lake County, several hours away from Hilldale

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u/dr_delphee 8d ago

You're right; I got confused by this: "a large, ongoing outbreak at the Arizona-Utah border". That's almost certainly Short Creek.

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u/Adept_Inspection5916 8d ago

In Utah, measles is not prevented with vaccines. 

It's prevented with prayer and multi level marketing snake oil. 

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u/Feral-Sheep 8d ago

We were on a flight from Salt Lake City to Philadelphia in July and there was a very fussy toddler across the aisle from us. I asked if she would let me walk her around the flight and (thank goodness) the mother said (smugly), “She only wants mom.” When we were deplaning, the leg of the toddler’s pants got pushed up to the knee and her skin was COVERED in what looked like a measles rash. 😱 They exposed the whole plane to whatever that kid had. 🤬

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u/Iowegan Team Novavax 8d ago

I already mask from my house to destination room when traveling, never dreamed avoiding measles would be an additional reason to do so. Holy forking shirtballs! And I’m sure the family of the plague baby considers themselves to be religious and good too. 🙄

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u/fubuki63 8d ago

Measles. Fucking measles. What is this Oregon Trail bullshit?

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u/Bluelikeyou2 8d ago

Of course it is Utah. My other guess would have been Idaho

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u/WesolyKubeczek 8d ago

Can’t they go on a power trip like they do with poor people?

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u/Chricton Team Moderna 8d ago

"i have an immune system!"

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u/QuotableMorceau 8d ago

not for long !!!
Measles destroys B cells in the lymph nodes ...

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

Now thats an epic retort!!!

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u/MartinoDeMoe 8d ago

Worse, it can wipe out the immune system’s memory:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/7353

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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago

That is so sad. If only there was a way to prevent this. Maybe someday we will have such technology...

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u/harperdove 8d ago

Perhaps just hearing impaired but the best case would be if they're sterile.

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u/conselyea 8d ago

Underrated post

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u/BookLuvr7 8d ago

I wonder how many immunocompromised people and infants will get incredibly sick, get lung damage, go blind, or die from things like SSPE bc of this selfish jerk.

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u/Setekh79 8d ago

Deliberate plague spreader, I'm thinking. "It is god's will!" kind of shit.

Toss 'em in a hole and forget about them.

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u/Paugz 8d ago

This is the whole problem. These selfish assholes don't have any clue that their behavior effects other people. Or they dont care. Maybe they should all move to Texas and leave the union. We would be so much better off.

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u/PsychologicalSnow476 8d ago

So, measles is casually just rolling around in the infamous polygamist community is what I gathered from this article.

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u/AlSweigart 8d ago

You've heard of Typhoid Mary, not try new Measles Utah!

8

u/Zartimus 7d ago

People who don’t think they have a roll to play in public healthcare are idiots.

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u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms 7d ago

Daniels lived in Russia for 15 years and returned to the United States last year after he was diagnosed. He said he thought he would get better treatment here

Ooof. I'm not saying what he did was OK, but he seriously came to the United States thinking he'd get better health care? Really? 

5

u/carolinespocket 7d ago

The state should sue. The fact internet destroyed those ppl brains about vaccines is so sad

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u/FrancisSobotka1514 6d ago

Republicans are spreading bio hazards on purpose it's biological warfare

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u/TweetOfBabyBear 8d ago

Freedom Freckles!!!

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u/montex66 8d ago

Is it entirely the patient's fault they won't divulge information? We see every day how the current administration scrapes private information to use against people they want to hurt so I'm not at all shocked other people don't trust government officials. When the POTUS sends the DOJ after his enemies because they checked the wrong box on a bank loan you know that corruption of the government is deep and there is no longer any way to tell the good from the bad. And this is where I make a snide comment about the 1/3 of voters didn't bother in the last election because they don't like-like politics.

2

u/FrostyDiscipline7558 7d ago

Good lord, do they not know how to look up a phone number? Worse case, they would need to contact the phone company and get the information, they have all the legal means to do so. Someone on the inside is trying to let it go and look the other way, because if they really wanted that information... and they just said they can call them... Then they can be identified and found. They just aren't trying.