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Comment by iliveindallas | Hacker News Reader

Thomas Eric Duncan took a pregnant woman who later died of Ebola by taxi to look for treatment. He lied on a questionnaire at the airport in Monrovia that asked if he had been in contact with anybody infected by Ebola. Because he lied his own country said that it would prosecute him if he survived!

If Thomas Eric Duncan had not lied at the airport he never would have been allowed onto an airplane. If Thomas Eric Duncan had told the hospital in Dallas that he had cared for a person with Ebola he would have been isolated immediately.

Thomas Eric Duncan isn't dead because he was black. Thomas Eric Duncan isn't dead because he didn't have insurance. Thomas Eric Duncan isn't dead because Republicans. THOMAS ERIC DUNCAN IS DEAD BECAUSE HE LIED!

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Actually, what Mr Duncan did was help his neighbors drive a woman who was 7 months pregnant to the hospital. The woman was presenting symptoms that are not unique to Ebola (fever & convulsions). The woman was not hemorrhagic. The group was turned away at the hospital and so they drove her back home. Mr Duncan then assisted in helping the woman back into the house. This is almost certainly the point at which he was exposed. The woman was not tested for Ebola until after her death, so Mr Duncan could not have known but he could have suspected.

Thus the possibility that Mr. Duncan thought he was only helping a pregnant woman get to the hospital to help with a troubled birth. At that point, the most information he could provide is that he cared for a sick pregnant woman.

Relying on the fact that Liberia would prosecute him is a bad idea, due to the precarious nature of justice in that country. I would imagine that Liberia would say just about anything to prevent public opinion in the US from going sour. Liberia is facing an existential crisis and are in desperate need of all the help the US can give.

Mr Duncan's trip to the US was planned weeks in advance, so he was not fleeing the country in response to his exposure.

> Mr Duncan's trip to the US was planned weeks in advance, so he was not fleeing the country in response to his exposure.

Citation for that?

He needed a visa to enter the U.S. (probably to even board the plane).

It's easy to find articles talking about him receiving the visa in August (I guess he would have applied for it some weeks or months before that).

Actually, Thomas Eric Duncan is dead because he came in sufficiently close contact with the Ebola virus, and it was fatal as it is for most who contract it.

It's this healthcare worker, and the likely other contacts who are not yet symptomatic, who are sick and statistically going to die who are dead because he lied.

And those who expect people to tell the truth on such forms, which flies in the face of all we know about human nature.

If Thomas Eric Duncan hadn't lied to get on the plane, he would have died too.

Nah. Lies are not terminal.

You don’t know that.

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