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Government agencies have an essential role to play in helping to prevent and mitigate epidemics. Unfortunately, in recent years, our government has pursued highly misguided approaches to preparing the nation for a potential pandemic of influenza or other disease. Too often, policymakers have resorted to law enforcement and national security-oriented measures that not only suppress individual rights unnecessarily, but have proven to be ineffective in stopping the spread of disease and saving lives.
ACLU Materials
ACLU White Paper, Maintaining Civil Liberties Protections in Response to the H1N1 Flu
ACLU Commissioned report, Pandemic Preparedness: The Need for a Public Health — Not a Law Enforcement/National Security — Approach
ACLU Press Release, ACLU Report: Government Must Abandon Misguided Approach to Pandemic Preparedness, 1/14/2008
View the ACLU Forum on Technology and the Future: Handcuffing the Flu, where three of the nation's top experts discussed the findings of Pandemic Preparedness report on the intersection of science, medicine, security and civil liberties in confronting a flu pandemic.
Q&A On the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act
Other Materials
Center for Biosecurity Issue Brief, Social Stigma Attached to “Swine Flu”—An FAQ for U.S. Elected Leaders and Health Officials, 4/30/09
Center for Biosecurity Issue Brief, Stigma: Its Harm and Its Remedy in Outbreaks Like Swine Flu, 4/29/09