Joshua Dean, one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit AeroSystems execs had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died after a sudden illness.
I wouldn't doubt the psychopathy of Boeings leadership — their execs and management have already murdered hundreds of people, and dozens of them should be serving life in prison — but dying of MRSA after 2 weeks of pneumonia sure sounds like a legitimate coincidence. The first whistleblowers death not so much.
Why do you think this? Is it that you believe that it's not possible that someone would be able to give someone a pneumonia+MRSA case?
Or are you in the camp that doesn't believe anyone with a financial interest in Boeing would be willing to have someone killed to suppress future whistle blowers?
E: sorry, it sounds like you do believe the first one was a murder
When you fuck as much stiff as Boeing has you are going to get a lot of whistle blowers, statistically some of them will die, it would be suspicious if none of them died.
Being whistleblower and being involved in such legal proceedings sucks and I can imagine that one might give up (like Barnett in March) or that it takes a huge toll on your body (like Dean now). But then again ... two such incidents around the same company ... reminds me a bit too much of russian windows.
Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit leadership had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died Tuesday morning after a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection.
Known as Josh, Dean lived in Wichita, Kan., where Spirit is based. He was 45, had been in good health and was noted for having a healthy lifestyle.
He died after two weeks in critical condition, his aunt Carol Parsons said.
Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino said: “Our thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones.”
Dean had given a deposition in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit and also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.
Spirit fired Dean in April 2023, and he had filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging his termination was in retaliation for raising concerns related to aviation safety.
Parsons said Dean became ill and went to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing just over two weeks ago. He was intubated and developed pneumonia and then a serious bacterial infection, MRSA.
His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he was airlifted from Wichita to a hospital in Oklahoma City, Parsons said. There he was put on an ECMO machine, which circulates and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, taking over heart and lung function when a patient’s organs don’t work on their own.
His mother posted a message Friday on Facebook relating all those details and saying that Dean was “fighting for his life.”
I had MRSA once, it's so easy to spread and there is zero doubt in my mind that it could be weaponized. Criminal investigations are necessary after TWO whistleblowers are offed. I'm not holding my breath though. Boeing is too entrenched in the MIP to be investigated in any real sense of the word.
In computer science, wouldn't that be like proprietary software only being auditable by cherry picked 3rd parties? In this case I should also need to trust the auditor.
In contrast, in FOSS software, all code is open to the public and can be audited publicly.
Edit2: I value privacy, that's why I use Linux and Librewolf. I just don't understand how that translate to this case.
As I now understand how my original post was conveying a different message from what I intended to ask, I copy it below:
Would you trust an anonymous source ?
Downvotes to an honest question. I should take a break from internet.
In cases like this where anonymity is likely necessary to divulge crucial information and survive? Absolutely. You sound like you have no idea how journalism in general and confidential sources in particular works.
Downvotes to an honest question
Honest question, my ass! It was obviously a rhetorical question meant to imply that anonymous sources are inherently not trustworthy.
I’d say we could trust the police to verify but yeah… I’d trust an anon source verified by AP more than the local police in most areas by a fucking mile.
Yeah Boeing out there giving people pneumonia and then a MRSA secondary infection. Couldn't have happened naturally that's unheard of! Nobody has ever had complications after pneumonia so young.
I, for one, will make sure I never step foot in a Boeing commercial airplane, and I will tell the tale about how Boeing kills whistle blowers to my kid’s kid’s kids
Y'all fall for click bait so fucking easily it's embarrassing.
The only reason this is reported on at all is that conspiracy theorists will see connections in anything.
People get sick and die all the time.
MRSA killed 100k people in 2019 alone. It's hard as hell to clean up and people catch it easily.
He had trouble breathing so he went to the hospital (probably COVID) and got intubated. MRSA from an intubation is unfortunately normal. It's a major risk to be intubated.
Hi! I'm a microbiologist and you have some facts either without useful context or that are just incorrect.
MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The methicillin resistance is notable as it shows a resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics, which constitutes a large portion of antibiotics in use in medicine.
MRSA is "easy to catch" in that it lives harmlessly on the skin of about 2% of the global population, but MRSA bacteremia, a pathogenic MRSA infection, is actually pretty uncommon, at around 400,000 people a year worldwide, of which around 100k people die. That's nothing. The common cold, the influenza viruses, infect an estimated over 1 billion people annually and kill an estimated 400,000, and they're pretty mild but they're rather infectious.
MRSA is typically easy to treat - that's why about 75% of patients live - with the remainder either having an infection in an unfortunate location, like the blood, immune deficiency, a strain of MRSA that happens to not be susceptible to available antibiotics, or just a lack of prompt treatment.
On the conspiracy bullshit part, I could absolutely give someone MRSA pneumonia, a particularly fatal form of both MRSA infections and pneumonia in general. What could be telling is determining his initial infection. If it was MRSA, sequencing that particular infection (or at least looking for the presence of notable genes using rtPCR) to determine its likely origin could be insightful. Without knowing the identity of his primary infection, though, we're left at guessing.
What IS interesting is that both Boeing whistleblowers have died from relatively uncommon causes, suicide and pneumonia in a healthy individual, in rapid succession. That's one hell of a coincidence.
"healthy" when he went to the hospital for breathing issues before getting pneumonia.
Man had COVID. He was immunocompromised and got MRSA in his blood from intubation. This isn't unheard of insanity: intubation is a risky maneuver because it kills people like this all the time.
MRSA is typically easy to treat - that’s why about 75% of patients live
So 25% die even when under treatment? That seems high. A similar mortality rate is the untreated form of dengue fever, severe dengue. Am I totally off the mark?
I mean, I'm not trying to play DA for shitty-ass Boeing here, but coincidences do happen. I'm certainly more likely to believe this death was a result of bad luck than the suicide from a guy who told his family, and I quote: "If anything happens, it's not suicide."