TB or not TB free: Today So Far

• A Tacoma woman has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. She refuses to get treatment or isolate. Public officials are weighing legal actions in response.
• Abortion rights and middle housing issues are floating around discussions among lawmakers in Olympia.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 9, 2023.

Where is the line between your personal freedom and the freedoms for everybody else? More specifically, where is the line between your freedom and the freedom of everybody around you to not have tuberculosis?

This sort of debate has happened ever since the formation of the United States. On one hand, we're Americans and freedom is a big thing for us. On the other hand, this freedom comes from us all being united, so we also have to live together. This debate is now playing out in Pierce County where a Tacoma woman has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The catch: She is refusing to undergo any treatment for the communicable disease, and further, refuses to isolate.

You may be familiar with TB because it was the same ailment Doc Holliday famously suffered from. Though, it should be said that tuberculosis is rarely as charming as Doc (Val Kilmer) makes it appear. Or perhaps because of House's famous catch phrase.

The woman has been walking around Tacoma with TB for a year now and as far as anyone can tell, no one has been infected after having contact with her (it's probably important to note that at the same time, folks were largely being careful, wearing masks, etc. because of Covid). Still, TB is a threat to public health, especially folks with other risky ailments. A court order has already been issued mandating that the woman isolate. Now, public health authorities are weighing whether or not to take further legal action and intervene. That means putting her in jail, which is also a type of isolation.

Treatment for TB can take months. Recovery takes a long, long time. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has offered to assist this person and provide any support they may need. Still, they refuse.

As KUOW's Eilis O'Neill reports, about 20-25 people are diagnosed with TB each year. The main difference here is that they get treatment. The health department estimates that it has had to take legal action over folks refusing treatment about three times.

A couple high-profile issues are working their way through Olympia right now.

Abortion rights have been pushed to the front of state lawmakers' priorities ever since last year's infamous Supreme Court decision. This had no effect in Washington state, where abortion was legal before it was nationally. It remains legal. But lawmakers want to ad more protections around it by adding it to the state constitution.

That's a tough thing to do, even in a state like Washington where one party dominates the Legislature. A 2/3 majority would be required to put the constitutional change up for voters to ultimately decide. Democrats don't think they can get that 2/3 vote, however, some are quietly saying that certain GOP lawmakers secretly are in favor of it. They are so quiet on the issue because they don't want to risk enflaming a certain, loud corner of their base. Expect this to be an ongoing conversation in Olympia. Read more here.

Middle housing is another issue many folks are watching closely. Washington has a big housing problem — there isn't much of it, and we will need a lot more in the years ahead. This week, a bill passed out of committee that would nix a lot of single-family zoning. The idea is to open these areas up to more duplexes, townhomes, etc. The bill is now headed to the Legislature. But keep in mind that a similar bill got about as far last year, but it failed to gain enough approval. Read more about that here.

Here's some food for thought for lawmakers considering this whole middle housing thing. I live in a townhome, but you'd never know it. Driving through my neighborhood, you'd assume that it was all houses. It's actually a bunch of townhomes, built right next to stretches of single-family houses. I call us "the townies." Someone figured out that if you just make things look decent, it's not a problem. There aren't any obnoxious orange, blue, or green paints, or any god-awful paneling. Folks still get a bit of a yard. We're planning to plant a garden this summer. If the area was all houses, about half as many people would live there (an off-the-top-of-my-head estimate). My anecdotal point here is that decent middle housing is possible and not much of a controversy. And folks don't mind so much if you just put a little thought into aesthetics that go beyond strip mall chic, which has, frankly, given some middle housing a bad name in recent years.

This all reminds me of some reporting that Joshua McNichols has done about middle housing in Spokane and in Bothell, which further shows how this can be done well.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Nahja Chimenti sews two panels of sail together. The sails are massive, spanning thousands of square feet and including miles of thread. The pleasure craft of today are very different from the tall ships that were once the only connection to other continents. Some of those old-style ships are still around, and they need regular maintenance on their large, billowing sails. But there aren’t many businesses that make these kinds of sails anymore. One of the last places in the world that still does is right here in the Puget Sound region. (Alec Cowen / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

Turns out, a lot of famous people have suffered from tuberculosis. Henry David Thoreau ultimately died from it. Singer Tom Jones had it when he was 12, spent two years recovering, and discovered a love for music during that time. President James Monroe got it. Also, Eleanor Roosevelt, George Orwell, Nelson Mandela, Tina Turner, and Cat Stevens. Some folks (mostly the people from long, long ago) passed away from tuberculosis or it was a factor in ailments leading to their death. But more recently (around the 1940s and 1950s), there were advancements in treatments, and vaccines, so you more likely hear of people going into isolation for a while to recover. The development of the antibiotic Streptomycin in the 1940s was a big deal.

Luckily for teenage Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr, Streptomycin came along shortly before he went to a hospital for tuberculosis in 1953. He spent a year in isolation, recovering from the illness. The hospital had a band program for patients and that's where he was first introduced to the drums. It became an obsession after that. About eight years later, he joined The Beatles.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

Take a look at the image people voted to award Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A photo of a snow leopard on the icy cliffs of northern India has won the people's choice award for the 58th annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Sascha Fonseca's "World of the snow leopard" won first prize out of a pool of 25 shortlisted images, racking up the majority of votes from 60,466 people.

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