Government has authority to quarantine SARS carriers

President Bush said Friday that people carrying the mysterious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome can be quarantined against their will, according to reports in the Associated Press and The Washington Post. 

 

 

 

Bush added SARS to a list including cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague and smallpox.  

 

 

 

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the authority would only be used if people refused a voluntary request to be quarantined.