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Wed 10 Dec, 2003 12:06 pm
[could this be a fore runner of concentration camps? shuddering and groaning.]
In April, President Bush signed an order adding SARS to the list of "quarantinable" diseases.With guidance from a model statute proposed by the disease-control centers two years ago, many states have revised antiquated public health laws. They have both clarified their authority to take emergency measures and improved provisions that allow people to protest quarantine orders.
Mr. Steinhardt and other civil libertarians say that these due process protections are far from ironclad. But the problem, public health authorities argue, is that a framework must be flexible enough to be deployed against a spectrum of known and unknown diseases, each with its own treatment regimen, incubation period, mode of transmission and degree of infectiousness.
"One of the challenging policy aspects is what steps do you take, particularly steps that infringe on a person's rights, with a syndrome that is totally new or not clearly defined," Mr. Libbey said. "The earlier the intervention, the fewer the subsequent infections.
"But how much information is enough to act on, short of an absolute and complete causal connection, before you get to the point at which it may be too late to intervene effectively and stop transmission?"
[I edited this to highlight the signing]
I hope they get the barb wire and humvees out! Just like in Outbreak!
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