Joined
·
2,211 Posts
Quarantine in America Could Be a Giant Legal Mess
Note that this author uses subtle but definite fear-mongering to put the power to quarantine square in the hands of the CDC--an organization that like all .govs has a history of as well as ongoing corruption. While I do see that there needs to be more centralization to prevent local breaches of quarantine, I also firmly believe there should be oversight from the State level. Possibly elected oversight officials from each state to ensure risk justifies the temporary removal of constitutional rights. But then I'm dreaming hoping for honest oversight ...everyone can and will be bought.
In the U.S., quarantine is the most extreme use of government power over people who have committed no crime. ...
Government officials can prevent travel, require vaccinations, make people submit to medical exams, and commandeer private property. Even those who are not sick can be ordered into quarantine—confined to their home or another location with others who may also have been exposed to a virus. When quarantine is medically justified, individual rights give way to the greater good. ...
But the average American may be surprised to learn who holds the authority to order such public-health measures. Except at the nation’s borders, the federal government, with the expertise of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is not in charge. ...
Federal quarantine orders, however, are implemented and enforced by state health authorities, not federal officials. That means state and local health departments provide the labor, set the rules, monitor people who might have been exposed to the virus, and trace the contacts of those who fall ill. ...
Until we have a need to test the limits of the federal government’s interstate quarantine authority,... who is in charge of setting national policy in the event of an epidemic emergency? The surgeon general of the United States? The CDC? And will that authority be believed?
It needs to be, because with public health under local political control, one state or local government’s failure could mean the more rapid spread of a virus anywhere in the nation.
Government officials can prevent travel, require vaccinations, make people submit to medical exams, and commandeer private property. Even those who are not sick can be ordered into quarantine—confined to their home or another location with others who may also have been exposed to a virus. When quarantine is medically justified, individual rights give way to the greater good. ...
But the average American may be surprised to learn who holds the authority to order such public-health measures. Except at the nation’s borders, the federal government, with the expertise of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is not in charge. ...
Federal quarantine orders, however, are implemented and enforced by state health authorities, not federal officials. That means state and local health departments provide the labor, set the rules, monitor people who might have been exposed to the virus, and trace the contacts of those who fall ill. ...
Until we have a need to test the limits of the federal government’s interstate quarantine authority,... who is in charge of setting national policy in the event of an epidemic emergency? The surgeon general of the United States? The CDC? And will that authority be believed?
It needs to be, because with public health under local political control, one state or local government’s failure could mean the more rapid spread of a virus anywhere in the nation.
Note that this author uses subtle but definite fear-mongering to put the power to quarantine square in the hands of the CDC--an organization that like all .govs has a history of as well as ongoing corruption. While I do see that there needs to be more centralization to prevent local breaches of quarantine, I also firmly believe there should be oversight from the State level. Possibly elected oversight officials from each state to ensure risk justifies the temporary removal of constitutional rights. But then I'm dreaming hoping for honest oversight ...everyone can and will be bought.
