Obama Signs Executive Order to Allow Detention of Americans With ‘Respiratory Illnesses’
InfoWars
As the Ebola outbreak continues to cause concern,
President Barack Obama has signed an amendment to an executive order
that would allow him to mandate the apprehension and detention of
Americans who merely show signs of “respiratory illness.”
The executive order, titled Revised List of Quarantinable Communicable Diseases, amends executive order 13295,
passed by George W. Bush in April 2003, which allows for the,
“apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals to
prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of suspected
communicable diseases.”
The amendment signed by Obama replaces subsection (b) of
the original Bush executive order which referred only to SARS. Obama’s
amendment allows for the detention of Americans who display, “Severe
acute respiratory syndromes, which are diseases that are associated with
fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness,
are capable of being transmitted from person to person, and that either
are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic, or, upon
infection, are highly likely to cause mortality or serious morbidity if
not properly controlled.”
Although Ebola was listed on the original executive
order signed by Bush, Obama’s amendment ensures that Americans who
merely show signs of respiratory illness, with the exception of
influenza, can be forcibly detained by medical authorities.
Although the quarantining of people suspected of
being infected with the Ebola virus seems like a perfectly logical move,
the actual preconditions for this to happen aren’t restricted to just
those suffering from the disease.
As we highlighted earlier this week,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has measures in
place for dealing with an outbreak of a communicable disease which allow
for the quarantine of “well persons” who “do not show symptoms” of the
disease.
In addition, under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act,
public health authorities and governors would be given expanded police
powers to seize control of communications devices, public and private
property, as well as a host of other draconian measures in the event of a
public health emergency.
When the legislation was introduced, the Association
of American Physicians and Surgeons warned that it “could turn
governors into dictators.”
Yesterday it was reported that Emory University Hospital in Atlanta was set to receive a patient infected with Ebola. A hospital in Germany also accepted
an infected patient earlier this week. Some critics have raised
concerns about the risk of deliberately importing infected individuals
into the west.
