The government has more than enough power to disrupt the average person’s life in unbelievable ways.

Andrew Speaker became the first person quarantined by the U.S. government since 1963 when he was found to have extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XTR-TB).

He’d traveled to Europe on May 12 believing he had treatable TB, then learned that he’d been diagnosed with XTR-TB.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told him he could either stay in Italy for treatments or return to America on a privately-funded air ambulance he couldn’t afford.

Speaker ignored the government’s ultimatum.

Not wanting to spend two years in Italy dealing with treatments which might not cure his TB, he returned to the U.S. through Canada, leading to the quarantine.

Nearly six weeks later, Speaker’s doctors in Denver announced he actually had the multidrug-resistant TB, which is able to be managed through drug treatments.

Speaker argues that the CDC tricked him into the quarantine.

Doctors told him in early May that he had the less dangerous form of TB, and said it would be safe for him and his wife to travel to Europe for their wedding.

The CDC argue that the test they first used was experimental. They stand by their May 22 test that confirmed XTR-TB.

Following his return to the U.S. through Canada to northern New York, Speaker was told by a border guard to check in to a New York hospital to be examined.

He was confronted there by armed guards with a quarantine order.

We clearly have a long way to go before our country is safe from the spread of infectious diseases. But it is also quite clear that the government has enormous power over all of us. A single test, accurate or not, can ruin your life.

Speaker was exposed by the press for having endangered hundreds of lives in his quest to return to America.

But he had the specter of two years of isolation treatment in Italy, not knowing if the U.S. would ever allow him to return.

He made mistakes, but so did the government.

They correctly diagnosed the more easily treatable TB and allowed him to travel, then assaulted him with the new test results while he’d already left the country.

He had no right to a second opinion. His fate in the eyes of the CDC was sealed.

The CDC need to focus as much on their own internal problems as they have on the border officials who allowed Speaker to return to the country.

If, as the CDC argue, the multidrug-resistant TB would have just as easily warranted a quarantine, Speaker shouldn’t have been allowed to go to Europe in the first place.

Beyond that, once he did leave the country, the CDC should have better handled the situation.

Rather than give a possibly dying man an ultimatum, they could have paid for the air ambulance up front and dealt with insurance paperwork once Speaker was safely quarantined.

Instead both sides failed to do the right thing, exposing the weakness of our line of defense against infectious diseases.

We now know Speaker does not have XTR-TB.

Next time we might not be so lucky.