http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/11/25/MN232750.DTL Health bill endangers civil rights The administration wants all 50 states to adopt a law allowing public health authorities to take over hospitals, seize drug supplies, quarantine people exposed to infectious pathogens, draft doctors to treat them, force patients to be vaccinated, and order police to restrain residents from leaving contaminated areas. ... Civil rights protections, however, are exactly what opponents find lacking. The kind of public health emergency that would trigger extraordinary powers for health officers is defined so broadly that it could include AIDS, HIV infection or a severe flu epidemic, said Tanya Ehrmann, director of public policy at the activist group AIDS Action in Washington, D.C. Annas said that under the legislation, people could be detained without a court order and isolated in stadiums or clinics without an adequate process to challenge the decision. The proposed law would also shield health officers from liability, along with anyone working at their direction, for deaths or health damage suffered by quarantined bioterror victims, he said. Under the measure, "if you kill people or hurt them, that's tough," said Annas, one of 10 New England health law scholars urging Thompson to change the draft law. "The families can't sue, nobody can sue."