HIV/AIDS

March 20, 2005 7:14 AM

Quarantine camps head toward reality Proposed law would allow round up HIV+ and People living with AIDS
posted by halekon (28 comments total)

... The article seems rather less alarmist than your post. Do you have other links?

He and Gara raised AIDS as an example. AIDS poses a risk to public health, but people with the HIV virus shouldn't be isolated if they're acting responsibly to avoid passing on the deadly virus to others, Gara said. MacLeod-Ball said he was certain it wasn't the public health department's intent to isolate people with AIDS, and Mandsager confirmed that during hearings.

"But the fact remains, under the way this is drafted, they could interpret that in a way that would allow them to exercise that authority," MacLeod-Ball said.

To address these concerns, the House Judiciary Committee approved several amendments that say officials can use isolation and quarantine only after they've exhausted less restrictive alternatives. Gara also proposed another amendment that was approved: If state officials want to order isolation or quarantine, they must go to a judge with specific facts about why that person must be segregated from others.
posted by josh at 7:26 AM on March 20, 2005

Let Jesusland do whatever it wants. People would still object strongly to that in the good part of the US.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:35 AM on March 20, 2005

Let Jesusland do whatever it wants. People would still object strongly to that in the good part of the US.

alaska is the new japan. it's a political test market for whatever is coming your way.
posted by 3.2.3 at 7:52 AM on March 20, 2005

There's already some support for this (and not just in Jesusland)--read the HIV link

If they start to quarantine people with AIDS or other diseases, they can start to "quarantine" others deemed a threat for whatever reason too.
posted by amberglow at 8:01 AM on March 20, 2005

In other news, the sky is falling. Take cover, halekon, take cover. You horse's ass! Sheesh.
posted by mischief at 8:22 AM on March 20, 2005

Mischief, please, any news that is less devastating than the sky actually falling can be subject to that tired old bit. You can do better.
posted by Space Coyote at 8:32 AM on March 20, 2005

Aside from the overblown rhetoric of the post, the article seems to depict a rather responsible discussion of balancing the need for potential quarantine in a genuine epidemic against the civil liberties of those afflicted. It's also clear from the article that HIV and AIDS were not contemplated by the drafters of the original bill. Instead, when AIDS was raised as a example of a potential troubling application of the law, the legislature approved a number of amendments to limit the law's application.

To address these concerns, the House Judiciary Committee approved several amendments that say officials can use isolation and quarantine only after they've exhausted less restrictive alternatives. Gara also proposed another amendment that was approved: If state officials want to order isolation or quarantine, they must go to a judge with specific facts about why that person must be segregated from others.

I'm with mischief on this one.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:56 AM on March 20, 2005

www.cybercuba.com/os.htm

www.cubasolidarity.net/cubahol2.html

www.applesforhealth.com/GlobalHealth/cubaidpolo4.html

www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/11/12/3fb1a601a8297

Mean as it would appear, the drastic Cuban approach does appear to have drastically slowed the spread (intentional or not... I mean; imagine somebody intentionally spreading a fatal disease... no, really?!!!) of AIDS.

I value my Constitutional rights, yet I also wish something could be done about people that are knowingly positive; yet continue to go out, party, have sex... and NOT tell their carousal of partners.
posted by buzzman at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2005

What Josh said. I read the article and for more than the first three quarters it seemed to make perfect sense. Then the issue that the FPP precludes to be the core issue of the article is brought up, and addressed right away.

Nothing to see here folks.
posted by furtive at 9:26 AM on March 20, 2005

Why would a thoughtful person phrase this FFP in this manner given the content of the article?
Troll material folks.
posted by HuronBob at 9:37 AM on March 20, 2005

Quarantining AIDS? That seems especially harsh -- I could see a discussion of quarantining people with some highly contagious disease, like SARS or Smallpox, but AIDS is a life sentence. That is the difference between containing an outbreak and instituting leper colonies.
posted by Hildago at 9:41 AM on March 20, 2005

"Just miles from your doorstep, hundreds of men are given weapons and trained to kill. The government calls it 'The Army.' But another, more alarmist name for it would be... the Killbot Factory!"
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:43 AM on March 20, 2005

What HuronBob and buzzman said.
posted by koeselitz at 9:46 AM on March 20, 2005

"Beyond the Euphrates began for us the land of mirage and danger, the sands where one helplessly sank, and the roads which ended in nothing. The slightest reversal would have resulted in a jolt to our prestige giving rise to all kinds of catastrophe; the problem was not only to conquer but to conquer again and again, perpetually; our forces would be drained off in the attempt."

Emperor Hadrian AD 117-138
posted by dhoyt at 10:54 AM on March 20, 2005

This has NOTHING to do with AIDS scare-mongering. Alaska public health workers are trying to prepare for potential pandemics of highly-communicable diseases. The tourist industry brings many people from all over the world, so I expect anything really nasty will hit Alaska earlier and harder than a state like Iowa.

That a legislator would bring up AIDS to point out flaws in the law is a good thing. Nobody in the Alaskan government is pushing for "AIDS camps".
posted by D.C. at 11:22 AM on March 20, 2005

If they start to quarantine people with AIDS or other diseases, they can start to "quarantine" others deemed a threat for whatever reason too.

Amberglow, we already do this to young black men. And when it will be convenient, it won't just be "AIDS" patients who get "quarantined".

How much of a stretch would it be then to lock up uninfected gay people because their sexual behavior is deemed offensive"too risky"? And from there welfare mothers whose behaviors are deemed offensive"too risky"? And from there political protestors whose thoughts are offensive"too risky"?

Dhoyt's well-placed quote is almost on the money: creating a concentration camp for HIV+ people is a slippery slope to locking up any other undesirables, until the country is left with nothing but Hitler YouthYoung Republicans and the inner sanctumneocon elites.

But of course, history never repeats itself. So we'll be just fine. Move along, citizen.
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:32 AM on March 20, 2005

Wow, AlexReynolds. I've been playing a lot of HL2 lately and when you said "Move along, citizen," I had this sort of knee-jerk nausea sweep over me.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:53 AM on March 20, 2005

Speaking of knee-jerk....
posted by Stauf at 12:20 PM on March 20, 2005

Wow. /speechless
posted by jmd82 at 12:20 PM on March 20, 2005

Wow, don't bother with the content in the links. /speechless
posted by AlexReynolds at 12:24 PM on March 20, 2005

Makes Matt Drudge look like a journalist.
posted by 2sheets at 2:21 PM on March 20, 2005

What an atrocious post. Interesting article, though.
posted by kjh at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2005

Quarantine camps head toward reality Proposed law would allow round up HIV+ and People living with AIDS

'Least we know scaremongering is not a practice limited to our elected officials.
posted by dhoyt at 3:35 PM on March 20, 2005

Alaska is my home state and its a damn beautiful one at that, one to be respected. I would feel ashamed for the already small population of Alaskans to become the nurse maids and caretakers of America's Most Unwanted. It's hard enough for men to find charming wives up there and reducing their odds even more is sad.

Moreover, AIDS has been around for a long time now without the slightest chance of epidemic, South Africa and India really need more attention. Why the scare all of a sudden right after the drilling attempts? If Bush wants to do something so bad up there why not go shoot himself a moose?
posted by Viomeda at 3:59 PM on March 20, 2005

Is being Muslim contagious?
posted by orthogonality at 3:18 AM on March 21, 2005

Those Nazi's!

How dare health officals attempt to plan for a strategy to segregate people with highly contagious Hemorrhagic fever from the general population.

Worst post ever.
posted by tkchrist at 2:01 PM on March 21, 2005

Yeah,there's no reason *cough*Tom DeLay*cough*Terry Schiavo*cough* to think that politicians might use medical policy as a stalking horse for something else.

Look, it's simple: you can't pillory the left for its paranoia when that paranoia has been proven correct so damned often.

I used to pillory the left for the same reasons -- but the last four years have convinced me that, lately, they've been right more often that I've been. I'm willing to learn from that experience.
posted by orthogonality at 2:13 PM on March 21, 2005

Look, it's simple: you can't pillory the left for its paranoia when that paranoia has been proven correct so damned often.

You guys love reading some kind of bias into everything. Nobody is pillorying anybody. This post was poor and alarmist. Left or right. I don't care. There was nothing in that article to imply people are going to be herded against their will into camps. Sheesh!

And I can count as many times the left has been wrong as it's been right. And dude as a some-times member of the so called Left I feel like I shout in the wilderness when it comes to showing my lefty brethren when they err — and even after it's proven they were wrong they can suffer from every bit as much cognitive dissonance and pre-frontal spin as the Right. (FI: The last two elections I COMPLETELY called. FI:FI: In 2001 I begged people to not vote for Nader, etc.)

Anyhoo. What has that got to do with anything? I don't know.
posted by tkchrist at 3:34 PM on March 22, 2005