Not too dissimilar from the argument that drug addiction is really a medical
condition and not a crime and should be treated as such. (talk about reasons
why US health care is so exhorbitant to all of us, think of all the medical costs
we bear of addicts thrown in prison for having a $5 crack rock).
ACLU wants changed focus in pandemic containment planning
By Chris Strohm, Technology Daily
Government planning for a disease outbreak is too focused on treating health emergencies as a law enforcement or national security problem rather than treating victims as patients and engaging the public, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The group on Monday released a report that asserts that plans made by the Bush administration since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to protect the nation against a possible influenza epidemic put the civil liberties of U.S. residents at risk. "Rather than focusing on well-established measures for protecting the lives and health of Americans, policymakers have recently embraced an approach that views public health policy through the prism of national security and law enforcement," the report states. "As a result ... today's pandemic prevention focuses on taking aggressive, coercive actions against those who are sick. People, rather than the disease, become the enemy."
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