Battle Creek Times

More than a decade ago, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a report about concerns it had with the country's pandemic plans, Michigan Capital Confidential reported.

“Coercive measures should be imposed only when there is a sound scientific and constitutional basis for so doing, and only when they are the least restrictive alternative and are imposed in the least restrictive manner,” the report stated, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential. The organization made the report after President George W. Bush had created new policies involving pandemics after 9/11.

The report notes that the country's approach wasn't right. “A law enforcement approach is just the wrong tool for the job when it comes to fighting disease," the 2008 report states, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The report called the government's approach "poorly coordinated and dangerously counterproductive."

“For example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Pandemic Influenza Plan posits a ‘containment strategy’ that calls for massive uses of government force -- for example, to ban public gatherings, isolate symptomatic individuals, restrict the movement of individuals or compel vaccination or treatment," the report states, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

There have been many states that have adopted policies similar to the ones ACLU criticized in the 2008 report. The only states that have not issued lockdowns thus far are Iowa, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.

The policies criticized in the report undermine policies that were implemented in Michigan by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer under a state of emergency.

"Simply put, people do not want to contract smallpox, influenza or other dangerous diseases," the report states, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential. "They want positive government help in avoiding and treating disease. As long as public officials are working to help people rather than to punish them, people are likely to engage willingly in any and all efforts to keep their families and communities healthy. ... Relying wherever possible on voluntary social-distancing measures, rather than mandatory quarantines."