'It's not science, it's coercion': health experts decry RFK Jr order on hantavirus quarantine

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 20 Jun 2026 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 20 Jun 2026 15.34 EDT


The Trump administration is employing “authoritarian” and “unconstitutional” quarantine measures for at least one person who came into contact with a hantavirus patient, health law experts say. The mandatory quarantine, reimposed without an offering scientific evidence, reveals how the US might approach future cases of Ebola and other pathogens in the US – and sets a precedent for detaining Americans with no scientific rationale.

“Cavalierly detaining somebody for no good reason, no crime and no significant public risk” is “arbitrary, it’s capricious and it’s unjust”, said Lawrence Gostin, health law professor at the Georgetown University law center.

James Hodge, a professor and director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said that health officials should never “use unconstitutional, ill-advised, unproven techniques to control infectious diseases”.

This incident could become “really damaging” for public health, particularly as the Ebola outbreak rages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and cases could arise in the US, said Hodge.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/20/rfk-jr-hantavirus-quarantine

[Solly Mack]

1. Fuck these people.

There had better be actual accountability one day in the not-so-distant future. Because, honestly, America is done, if there isn't. That's not me giving up on America - without accountability, America is giving up on itself.

[Skittles]

2. so let me get this straight

they were against stuff like masking up for the common good, but snatching people for quarantine is A-OK

what could possibly go wrong?

[Raven123]

3. I see this move as an edition of True Confessions

They know Trump screwed up the response to Covid. They know people died from their poor advised. They know vaccines work. They denied science. However, they never learned from their mistakes. They have no idea what to do, other than make decisions out of fear.

[mopinko]

5. i'm sure tsf remembers the cruise ship

that they blame for bringing covid here. they just let ppl come in, w/o any testing, restrictions, anything.
that after keeping them at sea to “keep the numbers down”.
it was already here, but that made the news. he saw it on his teevee, so he remembers.

[IbogaProject]

10. COVID was here before they let those people off

I was visibly sick on March 5, 2020 and was later confirmed to have been exposed before March 2020. I lived the very neighborhood with patients 0 and 1, there was one guy who worked up at 42nd and Lex who was active in their religious community in New Rochelle and a playboy who had been going to different night spots in Midtown-East in late February. And that insane giving everyone a deadline to return and just letting everyone back with no testing or any kind of even suggested quarantine was also disastrous. Their response to COVID was haphazard, contradictory and ultimately worse than only Belgium, who don't have a unified society. What I understand happened is Jared Kushner looked at the statistics and thought it would only rage in Blue areas and hit minorities extra hard. That guy was a total idiot and blue areas got it under control within a couple of months. And then Trump started giving conflicting statements like encouraging all the right-wingers to go to Easter Sunday services. Later once the vaccines had been out about six months we had the worst wave of the whole COVID period as it burned through red areas. Those areas with lower vaccination started and have continued to have higher death rates from all causes now. That differential in COVID death rates only began once the vaccines kicked in for those who took them.

[mopinko]

11. yup. i had a bad case of bronchitis in jan of 2020.

i was terrified it was covid, but also that if i went to the hospital, i wd catch it.
the hospital system i was in at the time already had it’s own covid test. it was absolutely here.

and they were already counting up the cases when it hit that cruise ship, and it was already starting to sting. that’s y he wouldnt let the ship doc. he didnt want it to increase ‘the count’. but there was some rich guy on the boat who was a friend of some other rich guy who had pull. which is y, not only did they let it dock, they let them all go about their business as if nothing bad cd happen.

[Ilsa]

12. As early as late February 2020, my husband and

a coworker were "quarantined" to our home for two weeks because they had lunch with a friend who had returned to the US from China. I was surprised, but actually was pleased that the company was so forward-thinking. They understood the potential for a pandemic before most news outlets were covering the emerging illness in China. I figure an executive with the company had good contacts with someone at the CDC, or State Department, or had traveled extensively themselves.

[Walleye]

4. They're still trying to fight a virus with a show of force. Idiots.

[wolfie001]

7. I guess were supposed to pray illness away

While armed to the teeth.

[wolfie001]

6. Bringing back the scarlet letter

Or the yellow star of David with these christo-fascist fuckers. Thanks to the 6 POS destroying the legacy of the SC. Those 6 clowns think jeeeeesus is gonna come down any minute and thank them for their stupidity? Clowns!

[WestMichRad]

8. Quarantine and "natural immunity" are the only tools in their toolbox.

When you throw science out the window, that’s all you have left.

[uncle ray]

9. have they ruled out paying reparations to the virus yet?