DISINFO: Unlike Russia, US tramples constitutional rights amid coronavirus crackdown
SUMMARY
Amid efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the US, the no. 1 thing that has been quarantined is the Constitution itself. Around 200 million Americans find themselves under the house arrest, their First Amendment rights to public protest or association suspended. They cannot even go to church for fear of being arrested. In Russia, the right to assembly or movement may only be restricted based on individualized suspicion. On the other hand, the US authorities simply presume the guilt of more than 200 million of its own citizens.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative concerning the coronavirus pandemic. Temporary limits on citizens' movement are a logical consequence of efforts to check the spread of the pandemic in a number of countries, including China, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Germany. In the US, government authority to introduce isolation procedures is derived from the US Constitution, Acts of Congress, and state laws. See here and here for an overview of US legal mechanisms to deal with communicable diseases. The segment falsely characterizes the measures currently taken in the US as a "quarantine" - a much stricter emergency regime which has not been deployed in that country since 1918. Isolation, moreover, does not "presume the guilt" of anyone, but merely "separates sick people with a quarantinable communicable disease from people who are not sick," according to the US Center for Disease Control. A dozen Russian regions have also imposed general lockdowns; the mayor of St Petersburg announced on 30 March the imposition of a "full quarantine"; whereas municipal authorities in Moscow are rolling out a city-wide surveillance system which "will allow [them] to control residents’ movements almost completely and prevent violations that could occur."