FLA GOP GOV. RICK SCOTT CLOSES ONLY TB HOSPITAL WHILE CDC REPORTS LARGEST OUTBREAKS IN 20 YRS

After the article appeared in the Palm Beach Post, a staffer from the office of Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, who got rich running a scandal-plagued hospital chain that was found guilty of a $1.7 billion Medicare fraud, asked the paper for a copy of the CDC report.

In a March austerity measure, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and state representatives voted to close A.G. Holley State Hospital in Palm Beach County, the state's only tuberculosis hospital, citing a decline in Florida TB cases in since 2010.
But according to an April 5 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida was suffering one of the largest uncontained TB outbreaks in 20 years -- and the largest spike nationwide -- resulting in 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, mostly among the homeless.
The hospital closed three months after the federally-issued report anyway, prompting questions: what did the state know, and when did they know it? And why was the outbreak kept secret?
According to the Florida Times-Union, Duval County health officials contacted the CDC for help in February after witnessing a sudden 16 percent increase in TB cases, mostly confined to the local homeless population.
But politicians closed A.G. Holley in Lantana 6 months ahead of schedule on July 2, the Associated Press reports, allegedly never catching wind of the CDC's April 5 report.
According to the Palm Beach Post, whose repeated requests to see the report went unanswered until reporters showed up in person in Tallahassee, the CDC's Dr. Robert Luo found:

"The high number of deaths in this outbreak emphasizes the need for vigilant active case finding, improved education about TB, and ongoing screening at all sites with outbreak cases."

The report also found that some 3,000 people may have had close contact with contagious patients in Jacksonville, where according to the AP report county officials decided to keep the outbreak quiet because it was largely among Jacksonville's homeless population.