Can you be arrested for being sick in a public place?

Answer 1

Depends what meaning of sick you mean.

If you mean the literal, puking your guts up meaning of being sick then i'd say no it's not illegal. It's an involuntary bodily function so there's no way you could be charged with a crime. I also doubt they would bother to track you down.

If you mean being ill having caught a disease then for the most part no it is not a crime to be in public, most diseases are not virulent enough to present a high enough risk to the public. For diseases such as Swine Flu those that are infected are often held in quarantine to prevent the spread as there is a much higher risk of the general public contracting the illness. Though i stress that the quarantine is for public safety not as a punishment for a crime.

There are also specialist units who will try to track down 'patient zero', the first person to contract the disease. This is done to try find the source of the outbreak and to find other potential cases.

Answer 2

Probably. You could end up being charged with drunk and disorderly.