Remember the woman in Tacoma with the active TB? She's still untreated.

[thewayne]

She has been "eluding" police and not responding to orders to turn herself in. Her attorney and family are not cooperating. She was under police surveillance apparently, but for some reason they didn't arrest her.

So for over three months now, she's been riding public transit, going to a casino, and who knows what else.

According to the World Health Organization, in 2021 tuberculosis killed 1.6 MILLION people worldwide.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/05/fugitive-with-untreated-tuberculosis-continues-to-stump-law-enforcement/

Comments

[dewline]

I am fed up with this kind of behaviour. More and more as time passes.

[disneydream06]

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why the bloody hell has she not been taken into custody? :o
She is committing possible homicide or which ever term you want to use. :o
Hugs, Jon

[acelightning73]

How come they can't catch her and put her into "protective custody" or quarantine or whatever the law allows?

[thewayne]

Excellent question.  The police say that their priority is catching attempted murderers and such and that she's lower priority.  But even lower priority people get caught.  Clearly they're not doing a good job on this court order. Interestingly, the jail has two negative pressure rooms for holding such cases.

[acelightning73]

She IS a murderess, with her contaminated breath as her weapon.

[thewayne]

I can't disagree with you.  I think it wouldn't take a lot of effort from the PD to catch her, seems like they're being cowards.

[motodraconis]

Is she terrified of massive health bills?

[thewayne]

That's a possibility.  Her atty says she doesn't fully comprehend the court orders and such, which is definitely an issue.  I think, but don't remember the details, that the county is going to pick up the tab for her treatment: that may be axiomatic that it  is their bill since she's been ordered into custody for treatment.  And if it's resistant TB, will be very not cheap!

[silveradept]

Amazing how the police can't catch someone who is a public health hazard, instead choosing to focus their attentions on something else. Can't be they're under-resourced or somehow have a staffing shortage, since I'm pretty sure the Tacoma cops could ask for whatever they wanted in the budget and get it without any serious questions being asked. I have to wonder what they believe is more important than handling this case - maybe harassing someone for not showing them proper deference on the streets?

Feh. Maybe once they've caught and treated the woman, we'll find out the real reasons why nobody was able to find her or bring her in.

[thewayne]

They could easily call in County or State backup.  There's no reason they couldn't get enough manpower to resolve this and get her into a negative-pressure lockup.