Quarantine

Biological agents are viable terrorist weapons, however they are frequently lower on the list of risks because they are not as predictable, controllable, and reliable as explosives or chemical agents. We may need to elevate them on the perception of risk scale.

Follow the case and travels of Andrew Speaker. His travels throughout the world have caused international epidemiological red flags to be raised. He has shown no outwardly alarming symptoms, however he is receiving treatment for a difficult to treat strain of tuberculosis. Because of this, the international reaction has been monumental in response to a perception of potential threat.

That one man can cause such an international reaction makes people wonder how much greater the reaction would be if terrorists began using multiple human vectors in much the same way they use suicide bombers.

Inevitably, that consideration raises the prospect of quarantine. The authority of federal and state officials to issue quarantine orders and enforce them, forcibly if necessary, is discussed in the Congressional Research Service's January 23, 2007, report for Congress titled Federal and State Quarantine Isolation Authority. The report update includes a discussion of the Constitutional issues raised by quarantine, it identifies the federal quarantine authority, and it explains how the US military can be used to enforce health measures.