Quarantine exercise shows problems

The CDC site has a report titled Quarantine Stressing Voluntary Compliance, describing the outcome of a one-day "tabletop" exercise in implementing quarantine measures in San Diego. The idea was to ask for voluntary quarantine by supposed carriers of a new respiratory virus, with law enforcement and military personnel backing up the quarantine.

Evidently all did not go well, with the "carriers" worrying about lost income if they couldn't go to work, and confused communications between medical personnel and the police and military. It's pretty clear that clear communication is going to be critical in such cases.

The exercise took place late last year, but I don't know if Bush was aware of it before his recent speculation on using the military to enforce quarantines.