‘It’s not science, it’s coercion’: health experts decry RFK Jr order on hantavirus quarantine

Robert F Kennedy Jr in Washington DC on 16 April 2025. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters View image in fullscreen Robert F Kennedy Jr in Washington DC on 16 April 2025. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters ‘It’s not science, it’s coercion’: health experts decry RFK Jr order on hantavirus quarantine Kennedy overrides CDC order saying an American who came into contact with hantavirus can self-quarantine The Trump administration is employing “authoritarian” and “unconstitutional” quarantine measures for at least one person who came into contact with a hantavirus patient, health law experts say. 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. “Cavalierly detaining somebody for no good reason, no crime and no significant public risk” is “arbitrary, it’s capricious and it’s unjust”, said Lawrence Gostin, health law professor at the Georgetown University law center. James Hodge, a professor and director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said that health officials should never “use unconstitutional, ill-advised, unproven techniques to control infectious diseases”. 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. “Wait and watch for it, because we’re probably going to see that later this summer. CDC set a terrible precedent right now with the specific hantavirus cases, and I only hope that we’ll see improvements for that to come,” he said. 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. She has attempted to appeal a federal order to quarantine in a North Dakota facility, asking instead to self-quarantine in Florida. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked states to provide in-person symptom checks and round-the-clock guards for the passengers, an unusual move – especially for a pathogen like the Andes virus that is typically only transmitted between people in rare cases. “It just isn’t the type of thing that you tend to have to quarantine for as tightly as what we’re seeing here,” Hodge said. Some states acquiesced to the requirement and 10 other passengers have returned home to self-quarantine. Florida refused these conditions. Michael Bell,deputy director of the division of healthcare quality promotion (DHQP) at the CDC, recently concluded that Perryman could effectively quarantine at home with daily remote symptom monitoring and access to public health support, according to a copy of his analysis obtained by Inside Medicine . But on 15 June, Robert F Kennedy Jr , secretary of the US Department of H