Since March 2020, more than 60 million people in Italy have experienced human rights restrictions that are unprecedented in the country’s republican history.
Tag: COVID-19
Framing the Digital Symposium – Global Responses to COVID-19: Rights, Democracy, and the Law
By Alicia Ely Yamin, Senior Fellow
This digital symposium presents a pointillistic portrait of the spectrum of rights-related measures adopted in response to COVID-19 in dozens of countries around the world. The impulse for this symposium emerges out of the conviction that it is imperative that we emerge from the throes of this pandemic not only with the fewest possible lives and livelihoods lost, but also with democratic institutions and the rule of law intact.
That portrait will invariably evolve during the duration of the symposium, and long beyond. Nonetheless, now is the time to begin collectively reflecting on lessons regarding the relationship between population health and decision-making in emerging, consolidated, and illiberal democracies alike — and their implications for the post-pandemic future we want.
Hospital Administration and the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part II)
By Chloe Reichel
This post is the second in a series of question and answer pieces with Rina Spence about hospital administration and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought numerous challenges to hospitals and hospital administrators: equipment shortages for both patients and health care workers; steep declines in revenue; and attendant staffing concerns.
Rina K. Spence served as the president and CEO of Emerson Hospital in Concord, MA from 1984 through 1994. Currently, Spence is an advisor to the Precision Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and the Law Project at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
Spence spoke with the Petrie-Flom Center to offer her perspective on the challenges hospitals are facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation touched on: the basics of hospital administration; the business-like model by which many hospitals are run; unpopular decisions hospitals are making during the pandemic, like furloughing some staff and slashing retirement benefits; and steps forward in addressing the COVID-19 crisis at the hospital-level.
We’ve lightly edited and condensed the interview, which is running as a series of question and answer pieces. This second installment provides an overview of the administrative decisions hospitals are making during the COVID-19 pandemic, including cutting benefits for employees and furloughing staff.
Access to Drugs Before FDA Approval: Video Explainer with Christopher Robertson
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many questions about the regulation of drugs in the United States.
One such concern relates to the use of drugs for treatment of COVID-19 that have not yet been FDA approved.
In this video explainer produced by the James E. Rogers College of Law of The University of Arizona, Christopher Robertson, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation, discusses these issues, including the Right to Try Act and off-label use of pharmaceuticals, with NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Alison Bateman-House, MPH, PhD.
When and How to Resume Non-Urgent Care During COVID-19
By Louise P. King, MD, JD and Sigal Klipstein, MD
In recent days, we have seen our efforts at physical distancing flatten curves to mesas and begun to discuss re-opening for “elective” –- more commonly referred to as non-urgent -– medical care.
At some fundamental level, almost all care is essential to the individual seeking it, just as all lives have intrinsic value. The question then is not what is “essential,” because in trying to create such a list we will invariably wish to include so many conditions that we will list much of the breadth of medicine.
Instead, the question must be: can we accommodate non-emergent/non-urgent care safely or not, and if yes, which care do we address first as we re-open? While we cannot address all the issues raised by these questions in this short piece, we will highlight some considerations below.
How States are Protecting Health Care Providers from Legal Liability in the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Valerie Gutmann Koch
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians and policymakers alike have raised the alarm about potential legal liability for following crisis standards of care.
Liability protections may be necessary when, due to the circumstances of the emergency, a state faces scarce resources (such as ventilators or ICU beds) and the state activates its crisis standards of care (CSC). A CSC authorizes the legal prioritization of patients for scarce resources based on changing circumstances and increased demands. CSCs provide a mechanism for reallocating staff, facilities, and supplies to meet needs during a public health emergency.
Notably, and by necessity, the standard of care that clinicians may be able to provide during the COVID-19 pandemic may depart significantly from standard non-emergency medical practice. In a non-crisis setting, the prevailing medical standard of care focuses on the needs of each individual patient and is centered on the principle of informed consent. In a public health emergency, however, such concentrated care may be impossible or inadvisable due to: (1) resource limitations and (2) the goal of saving as many lives as possible.
Obtaining a Hospital Bed in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Legal Perspective
By John Tingle
The recently reported case of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v MB [2020] EWHC 882 captures well the value of English common case law in resolving complex health care disputes within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and more generally.
Mr Justice Chamberlain in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice ruled recently that a patient, known as MB, who had occupied an NHS bed for over a year, must vacate it and instead receive care in the community. Her room could be required urgently by COVID-19 patients and there would be an increased risk of MB contracting COVID-19 if she remained in hospital.
COVID-19 is a Perfect Storm of Hardship for US Immigrant Communities
By Amanda M. Gutierrez, Jacob Hofstetter, and Mary Majumder
The burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic are not borne equally. Immigrant communities, along with communities of color and people experiencing existing health inequities, are expected to face disproportionate effects.
This piece provides an overview of the spectrum of COVID-19-related risks – including socioeconomic hardship, vulnerability to infection, and challenges in access to care – faced by many of the 45 million immigrants in the U.S., especially those who are low-income or undocumented.
Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy
By Ameet Sarpatwari, Charlie Lee, Frazer Tessema, and Aaron S. Kesselheim
Each month, members of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) review the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, policy analyses, and editorials on health law and policy issues relevant to current or potential future work.
Below are the abstracts/summaries for papers identified from the month of March. The selections feature topics ranging from the utilization and cost of naloxone for patients at high risk of opioid overdose, to off-label and compassionate drug use in the COVID-19 pandemic, to public-sector financial support and sponsorship for gene therapy trials in the U.S. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.
The Harms of Abortion Restrictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Beatrice Brown
Several states, including Texas, Ohio, and Alabama, have dangerously and incorrectly deemed abortions a non-essential or elective procedure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stated reason for these orders is to conserve personal protective equipment (PPE), a scarce, important resource for protecting health care workers treating COVID-19 patients.
However, these policies restricting abortion are unlikely to conserve PPE, and more importantly, they mischaracterize the nature and importance of abortions.