Mon Jan 14, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. policy in preparing for a potential bird flu
pandemic is veering dangerously toward a heavy-handed law-enforcement
approach, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Monday.

The group, which advocates for individuals' legal rights based on the U.S.
Constitution, said federal government pandemic plans were confusing and
could emphasize a police and military approach to outbreaks of disease,
instead of a more sensible public health approach.

"Rather than focusing on well-established measures for protecting the lives
and health of Americans, policymakers have recently embraced an approach
that views public health policy through the prism of national security and
law enforcement," the ACLU report reads.

But the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) said the group had
misunderstood the government's approach and said current plans already
incorporate many of the ACLU's recommendations.

Infectious disease experts agree that a pandemic of some sort of influenza
is inevitable, and most worries focus on H5N1 avian influenza. Although it
mainly attacks birds, the virus has infected 349 people since 2003 and
killed 216 of them.

A few mutations could turn it into a highly infectious disease for people
and could kill millions globally.

Most countries are working to develop plans to deal with the potential
consequences. The U.S. plans are available on Web sites such as
pandemicflu.gov.

The ACLU said it was worried that the plan called for military and police
involvement in enforcing a quarantine.

The ACLU experts said they were especially disturbed by an October
executive order from President George W. Bush that directed HHS to
establish a task force to plan for potential catastrophes like a terrorist
attack, pandemic influenza or a natural disaster that would ensure full use
of Department of Defense resources.

The Bush order does not specify what the Department of Defense role would
be, but also mentions military medical research facilities that have played
a role in health for decades.

"Pandemic planning today tends to emphasize mandatory vaccination and
forced treatment," the ACLU's Tania Simoncelli told a news conference.

"It also means that sick people are being treated as criminals and enemies
of the state rather than individuals in need of care."

The ACLU said plans should focus on how to help people stay home without
losing pay, and instead of merely advising citizens to stockpile food,
should provide for ways to help them do so.

HHS spokesman Bill Hall said the government plan stressed community and
individual involvement.

"They have mischaracterized our planning efforts. They are confusing a
containment attempt as our overall pandemic response once the virus has
spread beyond our ability to stop it," Hall said in a telephone interview.

"Respecting civil liberties has been an important component of our pandemic
planning."

He said many of the recommendations ACLU makes, such as voluntary
vaccination and treatment, were in the plan.

(Editing by Will Dunham and Philip Barbara)