# What has to happen for someone to be involuntarily quarantined? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-to-happen-for-someone-to-be-involuntarily-quarantined/355202 "2006-05-03T04:52:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AnabolicDoberman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@AnabolicDoberman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnabolicDoberman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-to-happen-for-someone-to-be-involuntarily-quarantined/355202/1 "2006-05-03T04:52:34Z")
If someone with a disease is going to be involuntarily quarantined, what does the government need, a court order or something? ---
**Author:** ![AnabolicDoberman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@AnabolicDoberman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnabolicDoberman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-to-happen-for-someone-to-be-involuntarily-quarantined/355202/2 "2006-05-04T06:22:16Z")
> [@AnabolicDoberman](#): > > If someone with a disease is going to be involuntarily quarantined, what does the government need, a court order or something? bump ---
**Author:** ![Tappi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@Tappi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tappi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-to-happen-for-someone-to-be-involuntarily-quarantined/355202/3 "2006-05-04T09:14:27Z")
Wikipedia throws up these quotes: The case of Mary Fallon: > [@](#): > > A few days later Baker arrived at her place of work with several police officers to take her into custody. Baker had to sit on Mary to keep her from leaving. The New York City health inspector investigated and found her to be a carrier, isolating her for three years at a hospital located on North Brother Island, and then releasing her on the condition she did not work with food. However in 1915 she returned to cooking and infected 25 people while working as a cook at New York’s Sloan Hospital; two of those she infected died. Public health authorities then again seized her and confined Mary Mallon in quarantine for life. And a more general quote: > [@](#): > > Civil rights activists in some cases have objected to people being rounded up, stripped and showered against their will. But Capt. Chmiel said local health authorities have “certain powers to quarantine people.” So it seems that local authorities have powers to act in the best interests of the citizens they protect, without the need to obtain special permission. Someone with a more authoritative reply may be along shortly 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-to-happen-for-someone-to-be-involuntarily-quarantined/355202/4 "2006-05-04T09:21:53Z")
IIRC, US citizens returning to the US and displayng SARs symptoms during the outbreak would have gone straight into a hospital for quarantine. I had colleagues that had to spend 1-2 weeks literally stuck in a hotel room because they simply returned to the US from China during the SAR’s outbreak. However, I think this was stupidity rather than government policy. Assume you’re talking about the US. In China, the government can quarantine entire schools, buildings, etc. This was done during SAR’s once the magnitude of the problem was realized. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-to-happen-for-someone-to-be-involuntarily-quarantined/355202/5 "2006-05-04T14:12:23Z")
Good information available [here.](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dq/quarantineqa.htm)