Gregory Edison v. United States

OPINION

TASHIMA, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs are two prisoners housed at Taft Correctional Institution (“Taft”), the only federally-owned and contractor-operated prison in the country. In 2003, Taft was struck by an outbreak of coccidioido-mycosis (“cocci”), colloquially referred to as “Valley Fever.” In most individuals, cocci manifests primarily as a minor fever. In an unlucky few, however, the disease takes a different, more devastating course — it causes a number of painful conditions, and can be fatal. Plaintiffs, along with an unprecedented number of other prisoners, contracted cocci while…