'It's not science, it's coercion': health experts decry RFK Jr order on hantavirus quarantine

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 20 Jun 2026 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 20 Jun 2026 15.34 EDT


The Trump administration is employing “authoritarian” and “unconstitutional” quarantine measures for at least one person who came into contact with a hantavirus patient, health law experts say. The mandatory quarantine, reimposed without an offering scientific evidence, reveals how the US might approach future cases of Ebola and other pathogens in the US – and sets a precedent for detaining Americans with no scientific rationale.

“Cavalierly detaining somebody for no good reason, no crime and no significant public risk” is “arbitrary, it’s capricious and it’s unjust”, said Lawrence Gostin, health law professor at the Georgetown University law center.

James Hodge, a professor and director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said that health officials should never “use unconstitutional, ill-advised, unproven techniques to control infectious diseases”.

This incident could become “really damaging” for public health, particularly as the Ebola outbreak rages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and cases could arise in the US, said Hodge.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/20/rfk-jr-hantavirus-quarantine

[Solly Mack]

1. Fuck these people.

There had better be actual accountability one day in the not-so-distant future. Because, honestly, America is done, if there isn't. That's not me giving up on America - without accountability, America is giving up on itself.

[Skittles]

2. so let me get this straight

they were against stuff like masking up for the common good, but snatching people for quarantine is A-OK

what could possibly go wrong?

[Raven123]

3. I see this move as an edition of True Confessions

They know Trump screwed up the response to Covid. They know people died from their poor advised. They know vaccines work. They denied science. However, they never learned from their mistakes. They have no idea what to do, other than make decisions out of fear.

[mopinko]

5. i'm sure tsf remembers the cruise ship

that they blame for bringing covid here. they just let ppl come in, w/o any testing, restrictions, anything.
that after keeping them at sea to “keep the numbers down”.
it was already here, but that made the news. he saw it on his teevee, so he remembers.

[Walleye]

4. They're still trying to fight a virus with a show of force. Idiots.