DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines

[FourScore]

Source: CBSNews

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary.

DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."

McGaw appears to have been referring to the section of federal law that allows the Surgeon General to detain and quarantine Americans "reasonably believed to be infected" with a communicable disease. A Centers for Disease Control official said on Tuesday that swine flu deaths in the U.S. are likely.

Federal quarantine authority is limited to diseases listed in presidential executive orders; President Bush added "novel" forms of influenza with the potential to create pandemics in Executive Order 13375. Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term...



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4975598.shtml

[Earth_First]

1. Here it comes... nt

[Hotler]

2. If you're sick you can just...

get well in a FEMA trailer. Practice going moooo for when you're in line to be loaded in a railroad car.

[woodsprite]

3. Yeah, we have a little friend, 6yo boy, who has just been diagnosed

with aplastic anaemia - after living in a FEMA trailer for 3 years.

[Warpy]

5. Don't be silly

Quarantine means you stay home and don't leave until that temperature is down, unless you get sick enough for an ambulance ride to the hospital.

You youngsters don't know ANYTHING since you weren't around for things like measles and scarlet fever quarantines.

I think it's a great idea. I've always caught the worst crap from idiots who like to prove how tough they are by coming to work sick.

[Downwinder]

10. Yes, but in those days doctors made house calls

and grocery stores made deliveries.

Scarlet fever was a penicillin shot everyday for three weeks.

[Mojorabbit]

11. That is why

now would be a good time to put a little by in the pantry. This has always been done when there has been a serious outbreak of an infectious disease.

[texanwitch]

4. If this does happen how many people will go to the doctor if they become ill.

A lot of people will stay home and ride it out.

[Warpy]

6. As long as they STAY HOME, fine

Employers need to be on top of this one and kick out anybody who shows up sick, a total 180 from their current stupid policy.

[rainbow4321]

15. One of our bosses was trying to "reassure" everyone

saying that people are "only dying in Mexico because of poor sanitation conditions" and if any of us catches it, we'll "just be sick as dogs" but we'll be OK.
Uh, huh..sick as dogs who are going to get penalized for calling in sick and then have to use up our PTO on top of that.
All of this in a healthcare setting :(

[Warpy]

20. Right, you'd think HOSPITALS would have better sense

but no-o-ooo! Fools would come to work hacking and spitting just so they could collect a check for their unused sick leave at the end of the year, with no penalty for making all their co workers and some of their patients sick in the process.

I never caught anything from a patient, but boy did I catch it from idiot, selfish coworkers who'd spend twelve hours hacking over all the terminals and phones.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. But, but, but this is not serous

so many folks round these parts tell us

The authority was implied on Sunday

To those who know how this works.. this is far from surprising

Time to stock up with food for a longish home stay

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. Right--I always have that

Since I live alone, getting any kind of flu can mean not being able to buy groceries for a while. I keep lots of canned, non-perishable, and frozen foods on hand at all times.

[quidam56]

8. Health care will be another Katrina, Bush and his greedy bastards

are making a killing, killing U.S. Wait until the swine flu hooks up with MRSA/VRE. Hospitals, Nursing homes and emergency rooms are festering and breeding something worse than swine flu. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 Profit care comes way ahead of Patient care in East Tennessee.

[nodehopper]

27. are you like the "carthage must be destroyed" dude?

yes, your pet topic is legitimately important, but not everything is about that, eh?

[bottomtheweaver]

9. Great. How reassuring that the DHS is behind this.

Not.

[Mojorabbit]

14. This is pretty standard procedure.

It has been part of the pandemic plan for years. The govt has had a website up with tips for a long time http://www.ready.gov/

[bottomtheweaver]

17. Right, the Bush years.

The DHS didn't exist before Bushler decided he needed it.

[Mojorabbit]

18. Most countries have the same policy

written into their pandemic plans. I think Australia just beefed up theirs in a more draconian way today. There is a run on tamiflu in New Zealand and Singapore.

[bottomtheweaver]

19. Isn't that nice. I imagine we made it part of some deal.

Now we'll have no troubles selling lots of Tamiflu and what to you know, knocking torture off the headlines for a few days at least.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Federal quarantines have been enacted in law and handled by the PHS

for well over a century. Before there was any idiotic "homeland security" department.

[chascarrillo]

23. Well, if other countries are being more draconian, then by all means, we should be, too!

Hurrr.

[Echo In Light]

25. Yep. All the usual suspects doesn't exactly instill confidence

[razors edge]

12. "President Bush added "novel" forms of influenza "

From a man who never read one.

I feel safer already.

:sarcasm:

[rainbow4321]

13. Pfftt...we can't even keep them quarantined in our clinic

when they come in feeling sick.
We have a huge waiting room they sit in as they wait to be processed..being a county facility with too many patients, THAT may be a while.
May be possible in a private practice that only sees a handful of patients a day and has the room to bring a patient back away from the other waiting area patients but not in a county run facility.

Can't "call the ones with cough and fever back into a room" because
then we'd have all of our rooms filled with them...leaving NO rooms for the 60-some scheduled patients we have all day. We figured that out within an hour this morning as the non-scheduled patients, one after another, were saying they wanted to be seen cuz some had fever or cough or diarrhea or some other potentially disease spreading symptom.
All we could do was leave masks up at the front desk and have the clerical staff offer them masks to wear while they waited.
You just kind of HOPE that the patients are with it enough to realize that they need a mask because the clerical staff are not allowed to triage or even ask about their symptoms and there sure as hell is
not a nurse in the waiting area to keep an eye out for someone looking like they have symptoms.
It's gonna be a long few weeks...or however long this takes to go away.

[Downwinder]

16. Go to the emergency room with Influenza,

Come home with streptococcus.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. You will see changes if this becomes serious

including the requests that yes you separate rooms and leave out of your schedule scheduled patients

Hell, the following order was given by the Health Ministry in Mexico City

NO routine visits to hospitals, only Emergencies

You can foresee that happening here too

As to private facilities, my doctor's office is part of a University Setting, and the way they are set, they will have a hell of a time setting a quarantine area, but may have to

Depends on how this evolves

[Hannah Bell]

26. oh god.