We're doing everything we can ...

[Dave Monroe]

U.S. may use military quarantine to contain flu
Bush says Pentagon could be put in charge of areas hit
by avian influenza

Associated Press
Updated: 2:23 p.m. ET Oct. 4, 2005

WASHINGTON - President Bush, increasingly concerned
about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday
that any part of the country where the virus breaks
out could likely be quarantined and that he is
considering using the military to enforce it.

“The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it
and keep it isolated in the region in which it
begins,” he said during a wide-ranging Rose Garden
news conference.

The president was asked if his recent talk of giving
the military the lead in responding to large natural
disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other
catastrophes was in part the result of his concerns
that state and local personnel aren’t up to the task
of a flu outbreak.

[...]

“Yes,” he replied.

Pentagon in charge
After the bungled initial federal response to Katrina,
Bush suggested putting the Pentagon in charge of
search-and-rescue efforts in times of a major
terrorist attack or similarly catastrophic natural
disaster. He has argued that the armed forces have the
ability to quickly mobilize the equipment, manpower
and communications capabilities needed in times of
crisis.

But such a shift could require a change in law, and
some in Congress and the states worry it would
increase the power of the federal government at the
expense of local control....

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9589897/

Headlines: Zoonotic Disease
April 4, 2005, Associated Press
Bird Flu Quarantine in U.S.
Excerpt from the article:

President Bush signed an executive order Friday
authorizing the government to impose a quarantine to
deal with any outbreak of a particularly lethal
variation of influenza now found in Southeast Asia.
The order is intended to deal with a type of influenza
commonly referred to as bird flu....

[...]

Bush's order was described as a standby precaution,
adding pandemic influenza to the government's list of
communicable diseases for which a quarantine is
authorized. It gives the government legal authority to
detain or isolate a passenger arriving in the United
States to prevent an infection from spreading.The
authority would be used only if the passenger posed a
threat to public health and refused to cooperate with
a voluntary request, the Health and Human Services
Department said....

https://www.mmrs.fema.gov/news/zoonotic/2005/apr/nzoo2005-04-01.aspx

Executive Order: Amendment to E.O. 13295 Relating to
Certain Influenza Viruses and Quarantinable
Communicable Diseases

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/04/20050401-6.html

--- Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The New York Times
> October 5, 2005
> Fear of Flu Outbreak Rattles Washington
> By GARDINER HARRIS
> 
> WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - Health officials have warned
> for years that a virulent bird flu could kill
> millions of people, but few in Washington have
> seemed alarmed.  After a closed-door briefing last
> week, however, fear of an outbreak swept official
> Washington, which was still reeling from the poor
> response to Hurricane Katrina.
> 
> [...]
> 
> Mr. Bush spent a considerable part of his news
> conference Tuesday talking about the risks of an
> outbreak and the measures the administration is
> considering to combat one, including whether to use
> the military to enforce quarantines.
> 
> "I take this issue very seriously," he said. "The
> people of the country ought to rest assured that
> we're doing everything we can." ...
> 
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/politics/05flu.html
> 
> Thoreen, David.  "The President's Emergency War
>    Powers and the Erosion of Civil Liberties in
>    Pynchon's Vineland."  Oklahoma City University
>    Law Review, Vol. 24, No. 3 (1999): 762-98.
> http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/thoreen24.htm


		
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