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. 2019 Sep;109(9):1179-1183.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305201. Epub 2019 Jul 18.

Ensuring Compliance With Quarantine by Undocumented Immigrants and Other Vulnerable Groups: Public Health Versus Politics

Mark A Rothstein  1 , Christine N Coughlin  1
Affiliations

Ensuring Compliance With Quarantine by Undocumented Immigrants and Other Vulnerable Groups: Public Health Versus Politics

Mark A Rothstein et al. Am J Public Health. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

A successful quarantine requires a high rate of compliance by individuals with potential exposure to a communicable disease.Many individuals would be reluctant to comply with a quarantine because they fear that contact with government officials will place them in legal, personal, or economic jeopardy. These include undocumented immigrants and individuals with a substance use disorder. For a quarantine to succeed, individuals must be granted temporary immunity from arrest, deportation, or similar adverse consequences, but doing so will be politically unpopular.We argue that public health considerations must take precedence over politics in protecting the health of the public.

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