commentary: Quarantine of A Global Killer!

Infectious Diseases
Martin G. Collins
Given 02-Aug-14; Sermon #1225c; 13 minutes

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I'm sure you've noticed that the media's headlines for 2014 regarding disease and viruses have increased exponentially. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), plague H7N9 (avian flu), HIV/AIDS, polio, viral hepatitis, measles, meningitis, cholera, chikungunya (a type of dengue fever) and others have dominated health related headlines.

Here's a cross section of headlines:

TheWeek.com: "MERS Mutates into Airborne Pathogen"

Fox News: "Chinese Government Quarantines Entire City After Outbreak of Bubonic Plague"

Bloomberg: "Deadly Airborne Plague Strikes Four in Denver, Colorado"

New York Daily News: "Chikungunya Explodes Across 35 U.S. States"

NaturalNews: "Drug Resistant Infections Explode 500% Across U.S. Hospitals"

So, the threat of disease is real, and it's poised to become a global killer—or so we are being told in the media if God allows mankind to do his worst.

The health authorities openly admit all their vaccines, antibiotics, and pharmaceutical drugs are worthless against these new pandemics. Right now we are inundated with headlines regarding Ebola. A quick sampling of those headlines:

NPR: "Could the Ebola Outbreak Spread to Europe or the US?"

The World Health Organization: "Ebola Moving Faster than Control Efforts"

Associated Press: "Ebola Patient to be Transferred to Emory Hospital in Atlanta"

I just found out this morning that they're also transferring an Ebola patient to Germany. That, to me, seems insane, but there we have the world and its insanity.

With anxiety increasing over the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa alone, provisions are currently underway in the United States, where even healthy Americans will be subjected to mandatory quarantine in the event of an Ebola pandemic. Western governments are now issuing alerts to doctors across the nation to be on the lookout for symptoms of Ebola after an infected Liberian man was found traveling in a major airport hub in Nigeria. You probably heard that in the news; it's been all over the news. The World Health Organization has called the outbreak the worst on record, while Doctors Without Borders says the situation is out of control.

Another headline this week stated, "If Ebola Hits U.S. Even Healthy Americans will be Quarantined," with the byline, "Well persons who do not show symptoms would be forcibly detained."

Back in April, the Department of Defense announced that it had developed a Ebola detection kits called Biological Diagnostic Systems. They were sending these detection kits to National Guard support teams in all 50 states in readiness for any potential Ebola outbreak. This is way back in April. So, what's going on here? The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has procedures in place to deal with such an outbreak backed by force of law. Now, the official CDC website details specific laws and regulations governing the control of communicable diseases, under which even healthy citizens who show no symptoms of Ebola whatsoever would be forcibly quarantined at the behest of medical authorities. (This is getting more interesting all the time.) Such stringent regulations have led to fears that an outbreak of a dangerous communicable disease in the United States would lead to massive abuse of power by the federal government and the imposition of martial law.

The United States has detailed procedures to deal with a pandemic outbreak, and it carries the full force of the law. Under Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U. S. Code 264, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to take measures to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and between states.

So what's going on with our southern border, with all the diseases coming on with that? They are speaking out of both sides of their mouths. The authority for carrying out these functions on a daily basis has been delegated to the CDC. The CDC utilizes two basic strategies when trying to contain a public outbreak of something as deadly as Ebola: Isolation and quarantine. Here's a quote from the CDC:

Isolation is used to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those who are healthy. Isolation restricts the movement of ill persons to help stop the spread of certain diseases. For example, hospitals use isolation for patients with infectious tuberculosis. Quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms. Quarantine can also help limit the spread of communicable disease.

Quarantining involves the creation of detainment facilities, in which people who are suspected or are infected with a pathogen are forcibly detained and not allowed to leave. This statute also applies in the same manner as people who may be exposed.

While George W. Bush was president, he asked a couple of rhetorical questions at a news conference in response to the possibility of having an infectious disease pandemic in the US. Here is what he said:

If we have an outbreak in part of the United States, do we not quarantine that part of the country? How do you then enforce the quarantine? One option is to use a military that's able to plan and move.

Under George W. Bush's first year in office, the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act was drafted during the 2001 false flag anthrax attacks. It has since been adopted in whole or in part by at least 33 states. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons warned that the legislation that George Bush signed into existence "could turn governors into dictators," while constitutional lawyer Phyllis Schlafly labeled it "an unprecedented assault on the constitutional rights of the American people."

Describing the legislation as a threat to fundamental rights, the Heritage Foundation summarized a list of ways the law could be applied in the event of a public health emergency being declared. Under the legislation, public health authorities and governors would rely on expanded police powers to do the following things:

» force individuals suspected of harboring an infectious disease to undergo medical examinations

» track and share an individual's personal health information, including genetic information

» forced persons to be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases

» mandate that all health care providers report all cases of persons who harbor any illness or health condition that may be caused by an epidemic or an infectious agent and might pose a substantial risk to a significant number of people or cause a learned long term disability

Note: Neither "substantial risk" nor "significant number" are defined anywhere in the legislation, so they write the law and they interpret the law.

» force pharmacists to report any unusual or any increased prescription rates that may be caused by epidemic diseases

» preempt existing state laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to privacy, medical licensure, and [this is a key] property rights. [They always throw "property rights" in there, so they can take your home from you, or as in the next point, as you'll see, crack down on companies]

» control public and private property during a public health emergency, including pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, nursing homes, other health care facilities, and communications devices [your cell phone, your telephone, or whatever else you may communicate with]

» mobilize all or any part of the organized militia into service to the state to help enforce the state's orders

» ration firearms, explosives, food, fuel, and alcoholic beverages, among other commodities

» impose fines and penalties to enforce their orders.

Recently, President Obama signed an amendment Executive Order #13295, which was the original one that George Bush that I mentioned earlier had signed in the law—President Obama signed this to allow detection of Americans with any signs of any respiratory illnesses. You have a cough, you might end up in the detention center. That's not too far out of the realm of possibility.

If humanity were left to its own devices, the future would look very bleak and hopeless because right now we stand just one event away from a global devastation from infectious disease—or so we are being told by the news media. All it takes is a simple laboratory mistake, the release of an international bioweapon, or a random mutation of a virus that becomes a global pillar. Humanity is largely defenseless against pandemics and infectious diseases, yet we keep sinning and packing people into high density urban areas, as if we were all magically immune. But we are not, are we?

Nevertheless, members of God's church do have hope. The Old Testament writers present a largely pre-scientific view of illness, and see external forces as playing a significant part in the cause of disease. Sometimes the agent of disease is explicitly said to be evil in origin, though permitted by God. The sufferings of Job described in Job 2:1-8 are explained in this way. Paul describes to the Corinthians that his thorn in the flesh is a messenger of Satan, and God's response, in this case, is to encourage Paul in his weakness to rely on God's power to see him through this trial.

The hope and assurance that we hold dear is that God's powerful Holy Spirit of love, of truth, and of strength is always unshakable within us. And from this we receive confidence that no matter what diseases may come near us, God has control over what happens to each and every one of us, so we have no reason to worry. We might have concern for other members of our families and friends, but we personally should not worry about these types of situations. Nothing can happen to us unless God allows it.

MGC/aws/dcg

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