MSNBC- President Bush Signs Executive Order Allowing Quarantine For SARS Patients.

MSNBC | 4/04/03

[Domestic Church]

3% is way too low. 3.5 would be the low end. Some are saying 4.0 is conservative.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thanks for the update. I get sick every time I spend any time on a plane -- all that shared air! I have a scratchy throat by the time I land.

[concerned about politics]

You can't quarantine someone for the the rest of their life.

Sure you can. Why not?

[afraidfortherepublic]

Jimmy Carter? Why, everyone knows that AIDs was a subversive plot hatched by Ronald Reagan and his evil GOP minions just to make the gay community suffer.... < /heavy sarcasm off >

[buffyt]

Bush Order Allows Quarantine of Pneumonia Cases

[[[[IF we had been able to do this to AIDs cases from the start of the disease, it would have been wiped out by now!!!!!!!!!!!]]]]

Reuters
Friday, April 4, 2003; 4:26 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush issued an executive order on Friday allowing the forced quarantine of patients with a mysterious new illness that has killed 80 people, as well as patients with other diseases such as Ebola.

The order allows the Health and Human Services secretary to decide when such a quarantine is needed.

It calls for the "apprehension, detention or conditional release of individuals to prevent the introduction, transmission or spread of suspected communicable diseases."

It names Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has affected a suspected 115 people in the United States and 2,400 worldwide, killing around 80.

The order also names cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, Lassa and Marburg.

[buffyt]

Well, for as long as they are sick... if that is forever, so be it....

[afraidfortherepublic]

...allows for faster action in shutting down specific business aspects...Myself, I hope that this results in a lot of American businesses stop sending their work offshore. Our families need the work here.

[afraidfortherepublic]

You can't quarantine someone for the rest of their life...

Ever heard of Leprosy and the hospital compound in Louisiana? Or the island in Hawaii where Fr. Damien worked?

[TaxRelief]

Is this helpful?


Source: CDC

[TaxRelief]

No.

[vikingchick]

Well, if it's us, then it should be a resort in Hawaii.

For non-Freepers, they could use the Clinton Library site as a possible temporary hospital. :)

[P-Marlowe]

This mystery illness has a contagion rate and death rate that is nearly the same as the usual cases of Hong Kong Flu that seem to crop up every year or two. Although the death rate is slightly higher, I think a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that people who catch this are panicking and worrying themselves literally to death.

Its a flu. Its a bad flu, but otherwise its nothing new. This panic is more contagious than the disease and probably more deadly.

[Dog Gone]

I think the thing that jumps out is that this disease isn't killing old folks and youngsters, those we normally consider most vulnerable.

This is hitting the healthy people.

[dljordan]

I've got a question for any freeper who knows more about government than me (which is probably all of you). I thought Executive Orders only pertained to the Executive Branch of government. Am I wrong?

[EternalHope]

Everyone does realize that the death rate of SARS is only about 3% right?

You do realize where the 3% number comes from, right? It was computed simply by dividing the number of cases by the number of deaths.

The problem with this approach is that most of the people with SARS are still, even now, in the hospital. Until we know how many of them will get better, we will not know the actual statistics. A lot of people have permanent lung damage, and we do not know those statistics either.

Take a look at per loin's statistics (post #77 on this thread). You'll see the current numbers are 17 dead and 99 recovered (645 are still sick).

If that ratio held up the mortality rate would be 14.7%. It is likely that the mortality rate will not end up that high, but it illustrates how early we are in this disease. It simply has not been around long enough to even calculate a reliable mortality rate.

If you want to know why people are very concerned about SARS, first hand, then go here:

SARS at Prince of Wales Hospital

[Petronski]

An executive order is an order to the executive branch which prescribes or proscribes a given policy or action.

[Almondjoy]

I hope you don't mind me saying.. but if we can.. you'd be the first person I'd put there.

[Almondjoy]

Can't say that I have.

[ALS]