Did you know that a declaration of public health emergency by someone at the World Health Organization could be used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to justify detaining and examining Americans suspected of being ill, even without the declaration of an emergency under U.S. law?
The CDC updated regulations for quarantine on the last day of the Obama administration (2017) to add a definition of public health emergency. The term was not defined in the law passed by Congress, even though the law authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to declare an emergency. It’s not unreasonable that a regulation defined a term yet to be determined under law. But what is deeply troubling is that the definition expanded to include declarations by unelected officials in an international organization.
In response to alarmed commenters in the Federal Register, the CDC defended itself: “We note first that the definition of public health emergency is not limited to those emergencies declared by the HHS Secretary.” Who else would declare a public health emergency in the United States other than the Secretary of HHS as designated by Congress?