As our long national nightmare of “15 days to flatten the curve” drags into its sixth (sixth!) month, many of our nation’s governors and bureaucrats are inventing new ways to wield their power.
On August 31, without much fanfare and with almost no news coverage, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Lost His Way) ordered Interim Director of Health Lance M. Himes to amend the insidious (and unconstitutional) health order the state’s citizens have been suffering under since March to create what amounts to FEMA camps. The order purports to “avoid an imminent threat with a high probability of widespread exposure to COVID-19 with a significant risk of substantial harm to a large number of people in the general population, including the elderly and people with weakened immune systems and chronic medical conditions.”
Never mind that deaths and hospitalizations have been on the decline in Ohio since July 1.
DeWine has been using an archaic sentence in the Ohio Revised Code, which gives the health director “ultimate authority” during a pandemic, to order everything from shutdowns to a statewide mask order to school closings. Several of these orders have been overturned by judges who have ruled them unconstitutional, but that hasn’t stopped DeWine from continuing to pile more orders onto the original abomination.
The latest order involves the construction and use of what are essentially FEMA camps to isolate individuals “who are unable to safely self-quarantine in their place of residence and to isolate those diagnosed with or showing symptoms of COVID-19.”
The order gives examples of the circumstances that might lead to confinement (internment?) in a camp.
Examples of the types of persons included in this order are those who test positive for COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization but need isolation (including those exiting from hospitals); those who have been exposed to COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization; and asymptomatic high-risk individuals needing social distancing as a precautionary measure.
The language in the order mirrors the text of a Frequently Asked Questions section on FEMA’s website about non-congregate sheltering, outlining the agency’s support for such measures.
The State of Ohio, and likely many other states, entered into an agreement with FEMA in March, “authorizing applicants to apply for emergency protective measures including non-congregate sheltering.”
Whether or not individuals testing positive for COVID-19 will be required to “shelter” in these camps is to be “determined by a local public health official’s direction or guidance and should be based on individual needs.”
The order is vague enough to give local mini-dictators plenty of reason to believe they have the power to order people into these camps… er… shelters.