Oh FUCK!! Hello Martial law?

[undergroundpanther]

Mass. Senate approves pandemic flu prep bill.

The Massachusetts Senate has unanimously passed a pandemic flu preparation bill that has languished in the Legislature before the recent swine flu outbreak.

The 36-0 vote today sends the measure to the House. Both branches have taken it up in past years, but have not been able to agree on the details.

The new Senate version would allow the public health commissioner — in a public health emergency — to close or evacuate buildings, enter private property for investigations, and quarantine individuals.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/2009_04_28_Mass__Senate_approves_pandemic_flu_prep_bill/srvc

Mass. Senate Bill 2028

www.mass.gov...

This bill specifically mandates the following:

(1) to require the owner or occupier of premises to permit entry into and investigation of the premises;
(2) to close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated any building or facility, and to allow the reopening of the building or facility when the danger has ended;
(3) to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material;
(4) to restrict or prohibit assemblages of persons;
(5) to require a health care facility to provide services or the use of its facility, or to transfer the management and supervision of the health care facility to the department or to a local public health authority;
(6) to control ingress to and egress from any stricken or threatened public area, and the movement of persons and materials within the area;
(7) to adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste and human remains, provided that religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased person shall be followed to the extent possible when disposing of human remains, whenever that may be done without endangering the public health;
(8) to procure, take immediate possession from any source, store, or distribute any anti-toxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the commonwealth as may be necessary to respond to the emergency;
(9) to require in-state health care providers to assist in the performance of vaccination, treatment, examination, or testing of any individual as a condition of licensure, authorization, or the ability to continue to function as a health care provider in the commonwealth

Any person who knowingly violates an order of the commissioner or his or her designee, or of a local public health authority or its designee, given to effectuate the purposes of this subsection shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or by a fine of note more than one thousand dollars, or both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Because of the flu,They think they get to decide when I must take a shot and decide what is in it.They get to come into my house,etc.If I don't let them do what they want to my body or my house I can be arrested!!If, I lived in Massachusetts! Fuuck! We need to stop this shit!

[brooklynite]

1. Strangely, the gang at FR is saying the same thing...

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Because they are right... to a point

DHS already has the authority, and some of us who have been paying attention know this

Suffice it to say, I used to be a health worker, and this does not freak me out

It is standard

[undergroundpanther]

12. If you noticed the topic title ends with a ?

Because It could be nothing, or it could be inconvenience or it could be bad. I don't know.But the bill's wording is vague enough to allow abuse,yet specific enough sounding to ease the minds of people who suspect the motives behind the bill.
Even a broken clock tells the correct time,twice a day,ya know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. actually that bill is pretty standard

reads like the same one I read in Excelsion a few days ago, passed by emergency measure in Mexico

As is the emergency declaration gave the authority to do this on Sunday

And yes, in a public health emergency civil rights go the right of the dodo, but fortunately it is not permament, nor is any of this shit usually actually played upon

CDC already has the authority

They have RARELY used it

Now you can count on STOOOPID locals though

So hope hour locals have the authority and the COMMON SENSE to only use it in extremis, aka a very sick patient that is getting all his neighbors sick

[undergroundpanther]

5. The local yokels are who I'd not want to deal with

Because there is always some authoritarian asshole in the mix being stupid with legislation like that.Abusing power. That is why shit like this BOTHERS me.

I just hope if it passes it is TEMPORARY.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Yeah you are describing my mayor

But the authority was already there BEFORE they passed this, as of Sunday... morning

As I said, they rarely use it, but I count on fear mixed with STOOOPID at the local level, and in fact, I expect it with or without the authority

Fear is amazing..

[eleny]

8. Local yokels carrying tasers...

:scared:

[nilram]

25. and ready to use 'em if you sneeze

or cough, for that matter.

[Fuzz]

4. It could happen, hope not because it would suck, big time.

[undergroundpanther]

11. Yeah it would suck

I have had drugs forced into my body against my will.It just made me furious.But I was overpowered and too drugged up to do jack shit despite that fury.Just because I was stupefied on the outside does not mean my anger has disappeared over this sort of shit.
All it takes is One authoritarian/sociopath/narcissist personality type, in control somewhere in a 'chain of command 'to make sure power and people are abused and to blame the victim.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. You should read up on the measures actually taken during the 1918 Spanish Fle pandemic..

6 months in jail?

They were summery executing people who broke quarantine in places all over the world.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. And in the states whole towns were closed

why I will review my grocery list and get some more canned goods and other stuff

[Mojorabbit]

13. I think in John Barry's book I read

they made it against the law to spit in the street and threw people in jail for it.

[undergroundpanther]

14. I hope this situation

never gets to executions..But for me, taking away my civil rights is bad enough.

[bottomtheweaver]

9. No job is worth getting vaccinated with whatever it is they're brewing.

Wouldn't it just be too convenient if health workers started getting sick in droves.

[Mojorabbit]

15. It would be awful

and as my husband is a physician I am very concerned. It happened in the big pandemic. Nurses were kidnapped to care for sick patients. Doctors and nurses have died in Mexico. It isn't funny.

[bottomtheweaver]

17. No it isn't funny in the least.

It isn't remotely constitutional either.

[undergroundpanther]

18. Wow

Kidnapped. That is bad.But that, is in Mexico. How long until the U.S. is like Mexico?
Today in my we class had a disaster prep film & handouts.(the film was cheesy) The state had ordered these classes apparently. I dunno is it all hype or not? If it is not hype,why all this disaster prep now? There are NO H1N1 flu cases in Maryland.How many people have died from this flu? Does this JUSTIFY suspending civil rights of people in Massachusetts NOW? That is my question..How long until Maryland suspends my civil liberties?

[Mojorabbit]

23. the nurses who were kidnapped

happened in the 1918 pandemic. It happened here in the US. Hopefully this will be mild and be over after the fall flu season ends.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. No, no in the US, that happened in 1918

but doctors and nurses have died down there already a lovely side effect of being in the healing professions is the much higher numbers of people in the profession who die

[Grinchie]

32. AGree, The news about Live Avian Flu mixed with human flu Vaccine fro Baxter Inc.

Is absolutely incredible. I heard about it late last night, and news has confirmed that they have indeed acknowledge mixing two types of infulenza together in a vaccine.

I've had many immunizations in my lifetime, but those days are over. I will take my chances with the illness before I submit to any more "Voluntary" immunizations for anything.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. You do know that further study of the virus has not revealed the presence

of avian or human elements. They had that only at one lab in Manitoba when this broke

And here is to hoping that CDC and WHO remove that element soon

By the way antigenic shift happens with virus... that's what they are... that's how we have been co-evolving

[bottomtheweaver]

16. Sounds an awful lot like the anthrax scare.

"(3) to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material," like SEC investigations into illegal Wall Street activities and other Bushler crimes, that kind of material.

[Hannah Bell]

19. I'd be interested to know whether such measures were in effect during the Hong Kong flu episode.

I don't remember them, & thus far, that was much worse than this.

Today's WHO update: (18:00 GMT)

US = 91 confirmed cases, one confirmed death.

Mexico = 26 confirmed cases, 7 confirmed deaths (though Bloomberg's reporting it now as 99 confirmed cases, 8 confirmed deaths).

Confirmed cases elsewhere (no deaths):

Austria (1),
Canada (13),
Germany (3),
Israel (2),
New Zealand (3),
Spain (4)
United Kingdom (5).


The situation isn't significantly different from yesterday, so far as the numbers go.

[Creideiki]

20. Can someone help me here?

What illicit substances lead to paranoid ramblings again?

[Hannah Bell]

21. do you need a seeing eye dog?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. Illicit?

My stuff's legal and it's a rozzer that dips a cracker the dropsy in snide, although one grunch and the eggplant over there.

You were saying?

[anigbrowl]

26. Don't worry, a tinfoil hat will keep you safe from infection

Sorry, public health trumps your individual paranoia.

[TreasonousBastard]

27. One could put up a good argument that Mary Mallon's rights...

were violated when she was dragged from her home and forced into a small room on an island just because she wouldn't change jobs.

But that argument would eventually lose-- just like most arguments that individual rights take precedence over the public health and safety.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. And you;d be wrong, there is plenty of case law on this gong back

a good while, short google search

Some even made it to the USSC

http://supreme.justia.com/us/186/380/

http://www.lvrj.com/news/42072962.html

https://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/328/8/585

[TreasonousBastard]

33. Well, I'm sure there is, but these three don't prove much...

the first is a state supreme court decision primarily about the Commerce clause, the second is a newspaper article that clearly says the state has the ability to quarantine TB patients, and the third is a NEJM article that costs a bundle to read but excepts in the citings talk about how quarantine is marginally better than paying TB patients to be treated.

Typhoid Mary spent her last days on that island and no one successfully argued to let her off it. I don't doubt someone would so argue today, but I still doubt they'd get very far.

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. There is a law and that is the point

health emergencies (this is one) have a way of temporarily suspending your and mine rights

Good news, they only last as long as this lasts

Bad news, it is a suspension at the local level

But the government can order you isolated if they think you pose a risk

Why do you think this was such a hot issue in the 80s when forced quarantine of AIDS patients came up by the really scared cats?

I can safely say that this since the last time this authority this widespread was 1918, most americans don't know this. I can also safely say that most of the times the authority is granted seldomly it is used by the feds.. now locals, expect a full break of stoopid

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. There's nothing there saying they can force you to have a shot

:shrug:

Take a breath, and read it again. If an emergency is declared, it allows them to take vaccines from any store of them (so that private companies or individuals can't hoard them), and health care providers have to help everyone if required to do so - they can't say "go away, you're not covered by insurance".

[MrSlayer]

29. I'll give them my contaminated gun one..bullet...at...a...time. Or something.

How am I supposed to react to this? If an epidemic of epic proportions happens they are going to do what they want anyway, until they succumb to the disease themselves. You are being silly.

[Grinchie]

31. As long as the Designee is not a contractor with immunity from his actions.

The designee is vaguely defined, it at all, thus allowing any bum off the street to become a designee, and given authority granted to the state.

This is absolutely unacceptable and wrong headed.

You better get them to define exactly what roles and responsibilities the Designee is assigned, as well an what accountability the designee is held to if they abouse their power, is incompetent, or turn out to be Blackwater, CACI or Titan Corporation.

Other than that, I believe they already have these powers, except for the Designee part and holding the medical practioners career in regards to licensing if they choose to not immunize people if they feel it might be risky. The bill needs to be clear that a health care technician may refusde to immunize people against the will of the state if they feel that their is unnecessary risk, and thereneeds to be a mechanism for these disputes to be resolved, without resorting to pulling credentials. As it's written, it appears that if they refuse to follow orders, their medical license could be pulled.

That is definately big brotheresque.

Also, you are the one to decide whether to receive an immunization. There is NO LAW that forces you to accept an immunization if you choose not to, no matter how hard they try to convince you of this..

[Telly Savalas]

34. Impending martial law internet rumors have really taken a nosedive during the Obama presidency

Maybe this will help them pick back up some steam.