We've referred to G W Bush as "Bush the Dumber" for a while; that's because we didn't regard Dubya as a malevolent character. (The malevolent one was Richard Cheney, who passed those genes to his daughter.) So if Bush wasn't evil, then he had to be pretty damn stupid, which is where we'll leave him for the time being.
Jeffrey Tucker (a Libertarian) dug up a Bush-era "health" document written in 2007, but which is part of the Department of Homeland "Security" (yes, that includes the Secret Service). You'll note that the operative paragraph secures the bureaucrats--but not the ordinary citizens.
...“Quarantine is a legally enforceable declaration that a government body may institute over individuals potentially exposed to a disease, but who are not symptomatic. If enacted, Federal quarantine laws will be coordinated between CDC and State and local public health officials, and, if necessary, law enforcement personnel…The government may also enact travel restrictions to limit the movement of people and products between geographic areas in an effort to limit disease transmission and spread. Authorities are currently reviewing possible plans to curtail international travel upon a pandemic’s emergence overseas.
“Limiting public assembly opportunities also helps limit the spread of disease. Concert halls, movie theaters, sports arenas, shopping malls, and other large public gathering places might close indefinitely during a pandemic—whether because of voluntary closures or government-imposed closures. Similarly, officials may close schools and non-essential businesses during pandemic waves in an effort to significantly slow disease transmission rates. These strategies aim to prevent the close interaction of individuals, the primary conduit of spreading the influenza virus. Even taking steps such as limiting person-to-person interactions within a distance of three feet or avoiding instances of casual close contact, such as shaking hands, will help limit disease spread.”...
As we all know, a "three-foot" or "six-foot" rule is absolutely useless. This is s**t they just made up. Because.
As Tucker pointed out several years back,
...It is a serious matter when the government purports to plan to abolish all liberty and nationalize all economic life and put every business under the control of the military, especially in the name of a bug that seems largely restricted to the bird population. Perhaps we should pay more attention. Perhaps such plans for the total state ought to even ruffle our feathers a bit.”...
That "military control" thing--while part of the document--is a wet-dream fantasy/Hollywood script thing which has little basis in reality. Bai-Den often refers to F-16's as an ultimate weapon against a real insurrection. That's because Bai-Den is as stupid as G W Bush. The US military is simply not capable of enforcing a shut-down of the US against the will of the people. Numbers and tactics are serious obstacles, as is the fact that all those military people happen to have families.
Tucker is a good Libertarian, so his rhetorical pitch is biased hard-right. There are instances where Government(s) should intervene for the good of their citizens. The questions that Tucker leaves un-asked are the simple ones: which level of Government (Fed, State, Local) should be primary, and what is the appropriate degree of "shutdown." They also are the most important ones.
By all means, read the list of people who wrote the document. Of particular interest here is the number of Symantec personnel on that committee of wannabee dictators. Symantec's history is wild and wooly and full of fleas, to say the least. The Symantec question remains intriguing.
Tucker calls for a repeal of the 1944 legislation enabling this quarantine-control/dictatorship possibility, and he's not wrong, although a sensible re-write might be a better option.
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