FLASHBACK: Obama Ditches Quarantine Rules

10.2.2014 | News | Sarah Fisher

In 2010, the Obama administration "quietly dumped quarantine rules that would have required air passengers to submit more information to airlines and strengthened the government's authority to detain travelers suspected of carrying disease."

Back in 2005, the Bush administration had introduced new quarantine guidelines:

“That plan met with harsh criticism from civil liberties advocates, who said the rules lacked safeguards for the rights of those who could be quarantined, from the travel industry, which said the policy would increase costs on airlines and cruise lines, and from some public health advocates, who said a heavy-handed approach would be ineffective at controlling disease.

The CDC had approved these regulations in 2009. "It’s important to public health to move forward with the regulations," CDC spokeswoman Christine Pearson told me last summer. "We need to update our quarantine regulations, and this final rule is an important step."

However, the following January the CDC "quietly withdrew" the regulations.

“"Upon further discussion and review across the government, it has become clear that further revision and reconsideration is necessary to update the regulations and make them more in line with ongoing government preparedness and public health planning and strategies," CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell told POLITICO last week. "In addition, much has been learned in terms of public health response since 2005 and that information and those lessons learned are vital in the crafting of new regulations."

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