The Family of This Young Gay Attorney Is Not Silent Over His Death This Weekend and Motor Mouth Councilman Duran Trying to Throw Mud At Him
John Duran says anger is misplaced, he was trying to warn public of possible outbreak
The family of a West Hollywood attorney who died over the weekend from bacterial meningitis is blasting a city councilman for making what they say were 'sensationalist and erroneous public statements' about the victim.
Councilman John Duran tells Gay Star News he meant no disrespect to the victim or his family. He says his priority was public safety in a city with a large population of gay men.
Brett Shaad, 33, was taken off of life support on Saturday (13 April) and died later that day at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills.
'There has been huge amount of misinformation about the time, circumstances and details of my brother's death driven by a politically-motivated council member and inaccurate media reporting,' the victim's brother, Brian Shaad, said in a statement Monday (15 April) to Instinct magazine.
'This was started by sensationalist and erroneous public statements made by Councilman John Duran of West Hollywood ... Eight days have now passed since Brett's first symptoms, and this still remains an isolated case. My brother is not the Patient Zero to an epidemic that Councilman Duran made him out to be.'
Duran held a press conference last Friday and was also quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying: 'We don't want to panic people but we learned 30 years ago the consequences of delay in the response to AIDS. We are sounding the alarm that sexually active gay men need to be aware that we have a strain of meningitis that is deadly on our hands.’
Duran tells GSN that his alarm was due there being some similarities to an especially deadly strain found in New York in recent years that has resulted in 22 cases, including seven fatalities since 2010.
'I wasn't trying to make political gain,' he says. 'I was trying to get the word out as broadly as possible that was happening in New York might be getting a toehold in LA.'
He adds: 'There are certainly parts I wish could have done better.'
Duran says he at no point gave Shaad's name to the media and that it became public via Facebook and Twitter: 'The press got the name out of blogosphere. I only confirmed it after they had it.'
It was reported that Shaad has attended the White Party in Palm Springs over the Easter weekend but Shaad's brother said in his statement there is 'no evidence' he attended that particular event - one of several circuit parties held annually.
Says Duran: 'At the press conference, I said what we are concerned about are large gatherings of people, like the White Party or this weekend in West Hollywood. I know (Brett Shaad) was in Palm Springs that weekend. I don't know what Brett did while he was there.'
Brian Shaad writes that 'at a time when we should have been focused totally on Brett's care, our family spent a huge amount of time and energy trying to correct the news reports that resulted from Duran's statements.'
For his part, Duran says he emailed the family an apology on Saturday (13 April) in which he 'extended my deepest condolences. I wrote that I apologize for the intrusion into your privacy.'
He adds: 'The family is angry and upset and I think they are lashing out. They should be angry with the disease, not me.’
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