News Release
Pandemic Preparedness Statement
We shouldn't legislate out of fear and in a hurry, as with the PATRIOT Act.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2009
CONTACT:
Christopher Ott, Communications Director, 617-482-3170 x322, cott@aclum.org
Boston -- A 2008 ACLU report with three authors from Boston, Wendy K. Mariner, Wendy E. Parmet and George J. Annas, lays out detailed recommendations and the rationale behind them. It's called Pandemic Preparedness: The Need For A Public Health Approach, Not A Law Enforcement/National Security Approach.
It's available here.
The report recommends education about what needs to be done to control the disease, not coercive measures like quarantines, arrests, and emergency powers like forced inoculations or seizure of private property, which trample due process and other rights. Legislators—and the public—should take a serious look at what these measures would really mean if put into effect.
Specifically, it calls for a new paradigm for pandemic preparedness based on the following general principles:
1. Health—The goal of preparing for a pandemic is to protect the lives and health of all people in America, not law enforcement or national security.
2. Justice—Preparation for a potential pandemic (or any disaster) should ensure a fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of precautions and responses and equal respect for the dignity and autonomy of each individual.
3. Transparency—Pandemic preparedness requires transparent communication of accurate information among all levels of government and the public in order to warrant public trust.
4. Accountability—Everyone, including private individuals and organizations and
government agencies and officials, should be accountable for their actions before, during and after an emergency.
In addition, a number of specific recommendations are made for a sounder approach to pandemic preparedness that protects health while safeguarding liberty, privacy and democracy. These include the following:
• Stockpiling and ensuring fair and efficient distribution and rationing of vaccines and medication;
• Emphasizing community engagement rather than individual responsibility;
• Protecting minorities and socially disadvantaged individuals from discriminatory rationing schemes for vaccination and treatment or from bearing the burden of coercive health measures;
• Relying wherever possible on voluntary social distancing measures rather than
mandatory quarantines;
• Providing counsel and procedural protections to those individuals proposed for
detention or travel restrictions;
• Protecting individual privacy in disease surveillance and investigation; and
• Ensuring that public health actors remain accountable for their actions in accordance with the law.
-end-
