In 2002, "President Bush signed into law the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which, among other things, eliminated the need to convene an advisory committee to amend the list of diseases" listed as quarantineable (Misrahi, Foster, Shaw, & Cetron 2004).

This law became significant during the SARS scare. Before 2002 "the list of federal quarantinable diseases in the United States had not been revised since 1983. It included cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Marburg, Ebola, and Congo-Crimean" fevers (Misrahi, Foster, Shaw, & Cetron 2004). The CDC was able to quickly ad SARS to the list. In the past, the CDC "generally deferred to state and local health authorities...to restrict the movement of persons within their boundaries" with such diseases (Misrahi, Foster, Shaw, & Cetron 2004). Its greater legislative ability to move quickly in classifying the...
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