MSEHPA - Bioterror Response Plan --MUST READ

[Guest guest]

-

Ingri Cassel

Sunday, December 16, 2001 10:13 PM

MSEHPA - Bioterror Response Plan --MUST READ

 

 

This most definitely wins the award for " best in journalism " in covering the

MSEHPA issue.

 

Please read thoroughly and pass on.

 

Ingri

 

 

 

Bio-terror Response Plan Would Invade Civil Liberties, Says Critic

By Michael L. Betsch

CNSNews.com Editorial Assistant

December 11, 2001

 

(CNSNews.com) - Anyone with a stomach ache and a bottle of antacid could be

subject to quarantine by the government during a public health emergency under

model legislation financed by the federal Centers for Disease Control, critics

of the plan charge.

 

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a bipartisan group of state

legislators, believes the plan would intrude on Americans' civil liberties by

granting public health officials and governors the power to quarantine and

vaccinate American citizens as well as the authority to ration drugs and private

property, including firearms.

 

The legislation is formally known as the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act

(MEHPA). Although no states have yet amended such a bill, it is intended to

serve as a blueprint for future legislation.

 

" The idea that we need it is very clear, " said Lawrence Gostin, MEHPA's author.

 

Gostin - who works as both a law professor at Georgetown University in

Washington, D.C. and a professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University in

Baltimore - says it is impossible to respond to bioterrorism or another major

assault on American health " without being able to plan, to conduct surveillance,

to treat, to test, to vaccinate people, or if necessary, even to confiscate

pharmaceuticals or vaccines. "

 

Gostin describes his proposal as an effort to help states respond quickly and

effectively to bioterrorism, especially chemical or germ attacks. He sees MEHPA

as a way to address sudden, devastating outbreaks of disease, for example.

 

But civil libertarians see the model legislation as an excuse for governments to

pounce on individuals' rights and privacy.

 

Gostin describes such critics as " a tiny minority mostly among fringe groups,

either strong political right to the strong political left, " leaving the vast

majority of Americans in the middle.

 

CDC Gives Financial Support

 

Jennifer King, a legislative expert with ALEC, is angered by the fact that

Gostin's model legislation has the financial backing of the federal Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention.

 

" It's crucial to know that the Centers for Disease Control actually funds that

professor, " King said.

 

She said Gostin's work at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins is " completely funded by

the CDC from grant money that they got a couple years ago. "

 

" The CDC is a public agency... we're funded by Congress, " said Tony Moulton,

director of the CDC's Public Health Law Program.

 

Moulton explained that in the spring of 1990, the CDC accepted a number of

applications from organizations wishing to collaborate with the agency on a

variety of legal and public health projects.

 

The applications were " reviewed through the standard process and scored, "

Moulton noted. He said Gostin's proposal received the top score and therefore

received CDC funding.

 

The CDC awarded Gostin $300,000 per year for a period of up to three years to

develop his model legislation, among other projects.

 

Gostin said his proposal has " unanimous support among all people with any

operational responsibility, " including the U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services and state agencies -- governors, legislators, attorneys general and

health officers.

 

King said she is not convinced Gostin has the support he claims. King also

accused Gostin of being a " very strong public health, police-state-type

advocate. "

 

" It's odd that they (ALEC) would say that, " Gostin responded. " For many years, I

was on the national board of directors and the national executive committee of

the ACLU; I was the head of the British Civil Liberties Union; I chaired the

ACLU Privacy Committee for many years. " He called her comment " misinformed. "

 

King said she's just citing examples directly from the model legislation itself.

 

Under the MEHPA guidelines, King explained that pharmacists would be required to

report unusual runs on drugs. " What we've said here internally (at ALEC) is,

'What if there's some sort of a church picnic?' You always hear about the church

picnic with the bad food and the run on Kaopectate. "

 

Under that scenario, King said, MEHPA might prompt a pharmacist to alert law

enforcement officials to a suspected public health emergency.

 

" Law enforcement officers would have no real reason to have that information, "

said Joy Pritts, an attorney with Georgetown's Health Privacy Project. She and

other privacy advocates consider such disclosures an unnecessary privacy

intrusion.

 

But Gostin insists this is about safety. " The prime responsibility of government

should include a very careful attention to the health, safety and security of

the population, " he said. Gostin added he does not believe government should

" gratuitously or unnecessarily take away some people's rights and liberties. "

 

Gostin said, " have bent over backwards in writing the law to make sure that

there was very careful attention to due process and checks and balances. " For

example, the model legislation includes steps to be followed in ordering

quarantines of infectious people.

According to Gostin, " Anyone who says it's not necessary just needs to ask

themselves the question -- would they really allow someone with a serious

infectious disease to refuse vaccination treatment or isolation? Any common

sense answer has to say, no, you wouldn't allow it. "

Confiscation of Guns

Pritts believes the MEHPA document is a confusing mix of bio-terrorism law and

public health law. " It is drafted in such a way that it encompasses a lot of

things that have nothing to do with bio-terrorism whatsoever, " she said.

King said MEHPA would be especially intrusive with regard to personal property.

The term 'property' is not limited to just land and buildings on that land but

it also includes food, alcohol and even firearms, she said.

" Firearms are an extreme public health hazard, " Gostin replied, " but they aren't

a biohazard and they don't, therefore, come within our act. So, I think that's a

misunderstanding. "

However, the MEHPA document does mention the word " firearms. "

The text says the states will have the power " to control, restrict and

regulate... the use, sale, dispensing, distribution, or transportation of food,

fuel, clothing and other commodities, alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives,

and combustibles, as may be reasonable and necessary for emergency purpose. "

According to King, the model legislation would give " absolutely unprecedented "

power to governors as well as to public health commissioners in the different

states.

Those powers would include the " ability to quarantine people who have either

contracted a disease, have been thought to contract a disease or might have been

in the same area with someone, " King said. And don't forget the provisions

requiring mandated vaccines, she added.

" With all of the power that states have under their general rule-making

authority, " Pritts said, " we're not sure that they even need this if the

governor declares a state of emergency. "

Gostin replied, " Unfortunately, it's not true. Some states have far too few

powers. "

" Anybody who thinks we can fight a 21st century battle against bioterrorism with

early 20th century legislation really just doesn't understand the sorry state of

public health law in America, " Gostin said.

" This is not anything to do with military tribunals or anything like that --

there's a lot of due process. So, for those who say that there's not enough

civil liberties in it, I think the only thing I could say is that for most of

the provisions, the civil liberties protections are far greater than that which

exists under current law. So, I think that a lot of the critique is

misinformed, " Gostin added,

Gostin predicts his model legislation will be considered in " virtually every

state " when the new state legislative sessions begin in January.

He said his proposed legislation is meant to be picked over by the states and

adapted by them as needed, to update their statutes. He said the proposal is not

intended to be one-size-fits-all.

The Illinois state legislature recently rejected a proposed bill modeled after

Gostin's MEHPA. And, according to King, " God-willing, Congress will never get

their hands on [Gostin's legislation] because that would be absolutely the

worst-case scenario. "

======================================================

Ingri Cassel, President

Vaccination Liberation - Idaho Chapter

P.O. Box 1444

Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816

(208) 255-2307 / 765-8421

vaclib

www.vaclib.org

" The Right to Know, The Freedom to Abstain "