90-Second Read: ‘It’s not science, it’s coercion’: health experts decry RFK Jr order on Hantavirus quarantine

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. Angela Perryman, an American passenger on the MV Hondius cruise ship, came into contact with another passenger who was sickened by Andes virus, a type of Hantavirus. But on 15 June, Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), overrode that conclusion and continued the mandatory quarantine. 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.

Some states acquiesced to the requirement and 10 other passengers have returned home to self-quarantine. Officials are meant to use the least restrictive option available to contain health threats in public health. But now, "even when state and local governments have been willing to take over the mantle" of managing some of these cases, "CDC has been reluctant to let them out", Hodge said. Kennedy "specifically considered the medical recommendation before deciding to continue the current order", said HHS spokesperson Courtney Spencer.

It just isn't the type of thing that you tend to have to quarantine for as tightly as what we're seeing here. He cited no scientific rationale for the decision in his order, which was also shared by Inside Medicine. Both Gostin and Hodge were closely involved in drafting the CDC's updated quarantine rules in 2017, and they opposed allowing the HHS secretary to overturn the agency's medical review. It also signals a dangerous "authoritarian" approach from top health officials, Hodge said, despite previous opposition from those leaders to unspecified "lockdowns" from the Covid pandemic.

Secretary Kennedy issued the order, and he's reviewing his own order, which is outrageous. The threat is not knowing cases that are actually out there, because we created a climate to which people would not self-report for this. That means that when there are multiple options that are effective in limiting spread, "you take the one that's less restrictive on civil liberties violations or infringements", Hodge said.