Swine Flu Quarantine: Local HD vs. CDC

I take a certain amount of solace in knowing that the CDC doesn't Quarantine without good reason. The last wide-scale Quarantine was 1918–1919. Since then, there have only been two isolated instances of CDC imposed Quarantine, being in 1963, of a single passenger arriving in the United States as a suspected case of smallpox, and in 2007 when a traveler with drug-resistant TB was placed in isolation. So, I'm not one of those who would worry about wide-scale mandatory Quarantines due to H1N1.

However, at lunch today I overheard a woman talking about her child's Day Care being Quarantined by the local Health Department for H1N1. A single child of the Day Care was confirmed with having H1N1, so now either the children have to stay at the Hospital for the next 6 days under observation, or their parents can take them home and keep them isolated for 2 weeks (and any other school-age children in the family would have to be isolated from school for 2 weeks as well).

The stranger part of this is that it never hit the local news. I called the local papers and news stations and none of them had heard of this. Calling the Health Department they asked if I had a child at that Day Care...after telling them "No" they declined to answer any further questions.

So, although we may not have to worry about wide-scale Quarantines from the CDC, local County and State Health Departments could conduct wide-scale Quarantines without it affecting the CDC's almost non-existent practice of mandatory Quarantines. And, if the CDC isn't initiating the Quarantine, there is little likelihood it will make the MSM when it happens.

So, if you don't fear the CDC, like me...perhaps it's time to fear your local Health Department for all the same Conspiracy Reasons everyone else has mentioned about H1N1 Quarantines.

Local health departments still have discretion to take action or not based on what is going on in their area. State and local government still have some rights. Most if not all pandemic flu plans have some sort of quarantine written into them.

Do you recall in April Fort Worth, Texas schools shut down and gatherings were canceled for a week when cases started rolling in.

I am betting the parent of any child not yet exposed is grateful for the action. At least they notified parents and parents know what to look for.

Two weeks seems a little long but they aren't sure what the current incubation period is, 1-7 days possible last I heard. Still 2 weeks is a long time.

As for the news, probably no one called it in...too small, and no one complained.

Swine flu has been confirmed in all our public and private schools.

Many businesses have been hit hard and have had to close due to sick employees.

Everyone seems to have self quarantined themselves.

The local health department has not made any threat to quarantine anybody.

Two of my grandchildren had swine flu and now a great niece has it.

It hasn't been the big bad monster I thought it would be.

The logistics of quarantining all the people just in my city would be a nightmare and very expensive. I don't see it happening anywhere anytime soon.