Posted on 10/15/2014 10:05:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(AUDIO-AT-LINK)
There's no sign yet that Ebola has reached Minnesota. But experiences in Dallas highlight what government authorities can do, firmly and quickly, to try to stop more people from getting infected — at a time when the public is increasingly wary of government intrusion and authority.
The state can lock you up for weeks. It could order your kids home from school and in some cases, kick you out of your job, at least temporarily. Health officials can inspect your house, open up your health records and maybe even seize your remains if you get sick and die.
The government has to have a lot of discretion, and to treat individual health care and public health differently, Minnesota health commissioner Ed Ehlinger said.
"Sometimes, public health goals and outcomes really conflict with that individual privacy," he said. "If someone has an infectious disease and doesn't want to be quarantined or isolated, we sometimes have to do that for the protection of the general public. And that's what public health is all about. And that's where the potential struggles are going to be."
That idea dates back to the very beginnings of the U.S. health care system in the 19th century.
"We tried to quarantine people coming in from other places that had cholera or other infectious diseases," Ehlinger said. "The public health service was established to really quarantine folks coming from outside the country."
Dallas officials ordered the family of Ebola victim Eric Duncan into a quarantine after they didn't go into seclusion voluntarily. And New Jersey officials ordered NBC health correspondent Nancy Snyderman to stay in her home after she violated a voluntary quarantine request and was spotted at a restaurant. One of her colleagues contracted Ebola when they were in west Africa recently.
Minnesota offers some guarantees to people it suspects might get ill, such as ready communication with health care providers and the chance to appeal a quarantine order in court, according to attorney James Conway, of Shakopee, who studies state law and quarantine The state also requires authorities to use the least restrictive environment possible for quarantine.
Conway doesn't forsee widespread legal challenges to quarantine, but said it raises a host of issues: What does "least restrictive" mean? Who decides? And what happens while people wait to see if they'll really get sick?
Another worry: job loss. Federal workplace protection laws may help some people, Conway said. "The Americans with Disabilities Act might apply to someone in a detention situation, so that they would likely not have fear of losing their job if they were placed under a quarantine."
In Minnesota, there are laws protecting employees and even a provision to recover lost wages in the event of an outbreak, he added.
But other situations and answers aren't so clear. What about property rights, for example? In Texas, officials stripped bare the apartment where Ebola victim Eric Duncan stayed, packed everything in more than 140 barrels, and incinerated it. The cleanup cost an estimated $100,000.
Minnesota Department of Health spokesman Doug Schultz said authorities have been weighing the practicality of such measures, and the need to clean up potential hazards, versus the risk of exposing more people to infection. Officials have decided to call the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to people's homes if any so-called "Ebola houses" turn up in the state.
Peter Sandman, a risk communication consultant in New York, said its hard to know how much authority it would take to stem an Ebola outbreak in the United States. But whatever the rules, Sandman said the key to making them work will be to apply them fairly,
"There's a real tension between protecting everybody's health and protecting everybody's liberty," he said. "But if you start diminishing some people's liberty but not other people's liberty, then that calls the whole enterprise into question."
Like everyone else, he hopes we won't have to find out if that happens.
MARTIAL LAW ALERT!
The statist song never changes, just the beat.
We will be told we have to trade our freedoms for safety, AGAIN
And everyone will scream here, but no shots will be fired. AGAIN.
Eventually it will be the guns, and then lots will die. Nobody is going to lift a finger to stop it.
CWII Spark Ping List!
Here we go. An epidemic is a perfect opportunity to impose martial law. Worked for Hitler (not the epidemic part, but to gain absolute power).
Be aware, wary, and loaded. (Take that however you wish, but I’d hope ammo would be involved in some way...)
Oooops there it is!
Just ban the darn flights!
The only shots that will be fired are when the confiscators go door to door to collect all the guns. But it won’t be enough. Americans (in general) have turned into sissified little men and women. Imagine if you will, America as it is now, but with the western frontier to conquer. Mexicans would end up owning half of the West, and we would still be under British rule. Manifest Destiny died somewhere in the past 60 years, along with American exceptionalism, patriotism, and decency.
I thought it may be possible someday, but I have listened, learned and observed for years. I don’t think enough have the balls to sacrifice what is needed, not to mention consequences of failure.
All that self-loathing can’t be a good thing. Try not to be so hard on yourself, noob.
Didn’t say anything about myself. Just said what I believe about the majority of Americans. Anyways, I don’t take kindly to personal attacks, and I would advise you to drop it.
Looks like we'll have to cancel that election. Sorry folks. Let's all get well first, OK?
On August 15, 2014 the Obama Administration sneakingly expedited visas from the Ebola effected countries.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3214587/posts
A law firm that helps bring people to the US from Ebola affected countries.
http://www.neufvillelaw.com/uscis-outbreak-related-immigration-relief-measures-to-nationals-of-liberia-sierra-leone-and-guinea-currently-in-the-united-states-and-other-considerations/
How many of Obama’s media cheerleaders will soon be sending semaphores to the White House suggesting the president suspend elections, declare martial law, negate the constitution, and assume the powers of a dictator which Obama has long coveted...?
Easier said than done. The world’s largest army, by far, is the armed civilian populace of the United States.
One thing we’ve learned from liberals like Obama.... They hate liberty.
The world’s largest army, by far, is the armed civilian populace of the United States.
______________________________________________
Thank the Lord for that.
*We're from the government and we're here to help you.*
The left believe the world is like dominoes neatly stacked in a line and all it takes is a nudge to get them falling where you want them to go.
They have spent the past 100 years getting them set up so that when the time was right they could change this nation into a utopia of socialism.
Well the real world is more like that physic demonstration of ping pong balls on mousetraps. Once the first trap goes off there is no telling what will happen.
So while the left may believe they are close to achieving their goals, I suspect the end results of all this may be much different then they want.
Socialist never take human nature into account, they figure brute force is all they need to get their way. It works for awhile but it the end, human nature wins. It is the nature of Americans to be free. If it comes to it, they will resist.
I’ve seen a number of FReepers say they wouldn’t submit to voluntary quarantine. Then everbody bitches when someone else doesn’t.
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