RFK Jr orders mandatory hantavirus quarantine, experts decry coercion
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered an involuntary quarantine for an American who had contact with a hantavirus case, overruling the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance that the person could self-quarantine. The order keeps the individual in government-imposed quarantine rather than allowing home isolation even though CDC assessed no significant public-health risk from the contact. Lawrence Gostin, health law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, called the detention "arbitrary, capricious and unjust," saying the move amounted to coercion. Public-health experts warn the decision could set a coercive precedent for future outbreaks such as Ebola and undermine trust in risk-based, science-driven quarantine policies.
