Emergency Legal Preparedness and Response
During disease outbreaks or natural disasters, jurisdictions may take divergent legal approaches in their responses to national or regional public health threats. Legal authorities vary across states, tribal governments and localities during declared emergencies. Conflicting laws and overlapping jurisdictions further complicate key decisions on when or how to respond.
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Resources
Guidance: COVID-19 Vaccine and Employer Mandates
Strengthening Public Health Authority to Contain and Prevent Communicable Disease
Proposed Limits on Public Health Authority: Dangerous for Public Health
Ensuring Changes in Emergency Powers and Public Health Authority Will Protect Health
Emergency Legal Preparedness: COVID-19
A New National Strategy for COVID-19 Response: Legal Opportunities and Challenges
COVID-19: Public and Global Health Law and Ethics Across Diverse Systems, Populations and Workforces
COVID-19: Navigating Public Health Emergency Legal Responses Underlying Re-opening State/Local Economies
Summary of Authority and Actions Regarding Public Health Emergencies: Pennsylvania’s Public Health Laws
Summary of Authority and Actions Regarding Public Health Emergencies: Ohio Public Health Code
State Legal Authority to Investigate the Spread of Communicable Disease
Summary of Authority and Actions Regarding Public Health Emergencies: Indiana Public Health Code
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A Closer Look at Emergency Legal Preparedness and Response
Public health officials may face many critical legal and policy decisions during public health emergencies, including:
- Inter-jurisdictional legal coordination of federal, tribal, state and local actors in real-time emergencies under changing legal norms
- The ability to issue isolation or quarantine orders, or other social distancing methods, to control public health threats
- Whether to close or dismiss schools, or other public assemblies, temporarily or for prolonged periods to prevent the spread of communicable diseases
- The authority to mandate vaccinations for minors or autonomous adults, including health care workers
- Licensing, credentialing and privileging out-of-state health practitioners
- Inter-jurisdictional management of scarce resources including personnel, vaccines, shelter and sustenance
- Omnipresent concerns over liability of public health practitioners during emergencies
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