Seite - 562 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Bild der Seite - 562 -
Text der Seite - 562 -
VULNERABLE562
Mandatory Quarantine Is a Less Restrictive Alternative
For many countries, a reasonably available alternative to total border
closures would be to temporarily quarantine all people entering a coun-
try. This policy option compels all incoming travellers to isolate for the
maximum incubation period of COVID-19 (for example, 14 days)14 so
that potentially asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases can safely be
identified without the risk of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus to oth-
ers. This option builds on a proven intervention—quarantine15—and is
non-discriminatory in terms of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, citizenship,
residency, and other factors (although, of course, the downstream con-
sequences of quarantine disproportionately affect people facing condi-
tions of marginalization, including poverty, homelessness, disability,
racism, and xenophobia). This means that temporarily quarantining all
travellers coming into a country would likely meet the Article 43 condi-
tions, in that this measure is supported by science, proportionate to the
risks involved, and respectful of human rights.
Would temporarily quarantining all incoming travellers for
14 days be equally as effective as completely closing the border?
Probably, at least so long as quarantine measures were fully imple-
mented and enforced. Indeed, previous studies highlight that the
vast majority of citizens in democratic societies comply with pub-
lic health orders when they make logical sense, when their value is
properly explained, and when they have the means to safely do so.16
Governments can additionally promote compliance by requiring
travellers to have credible quarantine plans, sequestering travellers
without credible plans to government-run quarantine sites, randomly
auditing compliance, zealously prosecuting violators, bringing public
attention to prosecutions, and advertising steep punishments for vio-
lating quarantine orders.
Not every government has the bureaucratic capacity to imple-
ment this more nuanced border measure. But most wealthier coun-
tries should have the needed capacity, and all countries can attempt
14. Stephen A Lauer et al, “The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) from Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and
Application” (2020) 172:9 Annals of Internal Medicine 577.
15. Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit et al, “Quarantine Alone or in Combination With
Other Public Health Measures to Control COVID-19: A Rapid Review” (2020) 4
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
16. R K Webster et al, “How to Improve Adherence with Quarantine: Rapid Review
of the Evidence” (2020) 182 Public Health 163.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International