Cedar Point employee with TB in isolation

There's no outbreak; county health department takes on a federal failure — and misinformation that followed

SANDUSKY —

Sometimes the internet acts as a misinformation machine, according to Erie County health Commissioner Pete Schade. Such is the case regarding a 20-year-old woman who came to Sandusky in late May to work at Cedar Point.

PHOTO/Matt Westerhold

“About ten weeks ago, I got a call that changed everything,” said Pete Schade, Erie County’s health commissioner. “Ohio Department of Health notified me that a 20-year-old woman from Colombia entered the country with active tuberculosis. She’d already been in Erie County a day and a half, and she was here to work at Cedar Point.”

That’s how it started.

What followed wasn’t just a public health emergency — it was a snapshot of what happens when federal oversight breaks down and local health departments are left holding the bag, according to Schade.

Case drops out sky

The young woman didn’t slip through some shadowy border — she was allowed in. In the past, foreign workers who obtain a work visa were not likely to enter the country without being screened, Schade said.

In this case, however, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to him, failed to coordinate with local authorities or offer any assistance.

“Someone needs to keep track of her,” Schade said, “because this is an awfully contagious disease.”