Personal Injury Law

Chinese Take Shot at Nevada Hepatitis Situation

By Steve Klearman

I used to live in Taiwan and I've travelled back and forth to Mainland China many times.

The Chinese do things in subtle ways sometimes.

For years now, China has felt the pressure of U.S. criticism of Chinese safety standards.

This is why it comes as little surprise that China is now running stories in the Chinese press about LOW AMERICAN SAFETY STANDARDS. We shoot at them; they seek out hypocrisy and shoot back.

More specifically, the Chinese Xinhua news agency has run regular stories on this event and reports as of today.

In one story, Xinhua notes that:

An outbreak of hepatitis C at a Nevada clinic in the United States may be "the tip of an iceberg" of safety problems at clinics around the country, said the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In another:

Roger Von Bergendorff, who remains in a coma at Spring Valley Hospital, also has had financial problems, filing for bankruptcy in 2000.

Authorities believe they recovered all the ricin in several vials found last week from the motel near the Las Vegas strip where Von Bergendorff had stayed. But they also checked a home in Riverton where Von Bergendorff had lived with a cousin, Thomas Tholen, as well as three storage containers linked to Von Bergendorff.

The FBI said the searches yielded no health threats. Tholen declined to comment Monday when reached by telephone. He said he had not spoken with investigators. Las Vegas police said that firearms, an "anarchist-type textbook" and castor beans were found in the motel room. The book was tabbed at a spot containing information about ricin.

Public records show Von Bergendorff, 57, used at least six addresses between 1983 and 2007 in cities in Utah and California.

He had lived in Riverton for more than a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago, said former neighbor Tammy Ewell. He spent the last three months in a camper belonging to a neighbor, John Walster.

Ewell described Von Bergendorff Monday as an introverted man who wore down his hosts by living rent-free and taking advantage of their hospitality.

She said Von Bergendorff wasn't social with neighbors and often didn't return a friendly wave. But while Von Bergendorff could be awkward around people, he loved animals, she said. She said he returned to Utah several times after he moved to Las Vegas to search for a lost cat.

See: xinhuanet.com

Other stories Xinhua is currently running deal with China's efforts to improve rural medical care and U.S. statistics which suggest that use of cosmetic surgery in the U.S. soared in 2007.

Full post as published by Reno Personal Injury Lawyer on March 04, 2008 (boomark / email).