Take an Airplane Flight, Get Quarantined
# Stefan Molyneux at LewRockwell.com - The Argument From Morality; Or, how we will win... - an interesting idea, but I've tried similar arguments with no success. It's incredibly hard to convince people who are programmed to believe otherwise that taxation is theft, that war in murder, that arrest is kidnapping. [lew]
#
Rick Weiss at The Washington Post -
CDC Proposal Would Help U.S. Track Travelers 
- take an airplane
flight, get quarantined for up to 30 days. But they'll respect your
privacy. And you can appeal the decision. Right. And I've got a bridge
to sell you. The text of the proposed rulemaking is at the CDC's
Division of Global Migration and Quarantine as
10 separate PDF files. I haven't read them yet, but I suppose I
should, just to see exactly what they're proposing. If they're going
to do it on domestic flights, it's time for civil disobedience ("Go
fuck yourself, Mr. CDC Nazi!"), and violent defense, when necessary. I
don't like it for international flights either, but there you're going
through customs anyway, so it's harder to fight. [cafe]
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a phone-book-thick proposed rule yesterday that would give the federal government new powers to track the comings and goings of individual travelers and expand the circumstances under which passengers exposed to a serious communicable disease could be isolated or quarantined.
...
"We're not talking about quarantining anybody for a sniffle or a cough," said Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine, in a conference call with reporters.
He added that although travelers would be asked to provide more personal information -- including phone numbers and e-mail addresses -- the goal is simply to be able to contact people if it becomes apparent they sat near an infected person while traveling.
"There are some very rigorous standards of privacy with which this information will be treated," Cetron said.
...
The rule spells out a somewhat broadened array of circumstances or symptoms that can result in a passenger being held in quarantine or isolation upon arrival. (The term "quarantine" refers to the time a person is restricted because of suspicion of exposure to a disease but with no sign of illness; "isolation" refers to the time a person is restricted while ill and presumed able to spread the disease.) Practically speaking, the responsibility for detaining passengers falls largely on federal quarantine officers, who are eyeballing and questioning arriving passengers at a growing number of U.S. airports and other transport hubs.
Agency documents supporting the rule emphasize that the courts have long found that public health concerns can trump individual rights, including certain expectations of privacy, freedom of movement and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
...
Under the new proposal, the criteria used to presume infection are broadened to include a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in conjunction with other symptoms, to make sure anyone with pandemic flu is included.
...
Federal courts have varied in their rulings on how long the government may hold someone before that person must be afforded an administrative hearing. The proposed rule would allow detention for three business days without a hearing, with an option to extend if medical tests confirm the need.
No one could be forcibly isolated for longer than the amount of time it takes for the suspected disease to be no longer communicable -- less than a month for most diseases.
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