Health - Bill of Health

Doctor wearing glasses listening to female patient.

Physician Free Speech and the Doctor-Patient Relationship Post-Dobbs

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Lynette Martins and Scott Schweikart

Laws regulating physicians’ professional speech – i.e., what they can and cannot discuss in the exam room with patients — have made a resurgence in the post-Dobbs era. These so-called “gag laws” have primarily targeted physicians’ speech around firearms, reproductive rights (predominantly abortion), and, less frequently, conversion therapy.

In the abortion context, these restrictive laws impact not only patient access to critical medical services, but also the fundamental underpinnings of the physician-patient relationship.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 4, 2021. People waiting for their turn to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at the Club Atlético River Plate Microstadium.

Considerations from Argentina on the Judicial Control of Public Health Policies

April 14, 2023April 14, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By María Natalia Echegoyemberry and Francisco Verbic

This article looks at the COVID-19 pandemic response in Argentina, with a particular focus on the judicial control of public health policies. Looking ahead, we discuss the mechanisms that need to be implemented in order to avoid undue judicial interference, which is particularly critical in countries like Argentina, where the Judiciary is delegitimized and strongly questioned.

We focus on a case in Argentina where a federal judge ordered the suspension of the campaign for pediatric vaccination against COVID-19.

Public Health Law and Civil Rights Laws Must Work Together to Rise to the Challenge of Long COVID

March 21, 2023March 21, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Elizabeth Pendo

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the need for public health laws and policies that align with and reinforce civil rights protections for disproportionately impacted populations is greater than ever. In particular, disability rights laws will be critical for responding to the millions of Americans who experience lasting or recurring symptoms after acute COVID-19 infection (commonly referred to as “long COVID”). This article will discuss the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in protecting the rights of people with long COVID and other disabilities in the workplace, in health care, and in disability and other benefits in order to chart an equitable path forward.

Caucasian female nurse standing in doctors office taking selfie on cellular device.

Should TikTok Doctors Owe Any Duty of Care Toward Their Followers?

March 15, 2023March 8, 2023 Sarah Gabriele Leave a comment

By Sarah Gabriele

Doctors are now using social media platforms to spread medical knowledge and to interact with the communities that they are actively building.

This trend poses new ethical questions for physicians who want to create and engage with their communities on social media. Read More

Gas stove burner with burning gas. Sale and purchase of gas fuel.

The Public Health Case Against Gas Appliances

March 10, 2023April 26, 2023 Jennifer Oliva Leave a comment

By Heather Payne and Jennifer D. Oliva

Gas appliances pose a grave danger to tenant health and safety.

In a forthcoming article, we argue that the mere presence of natural gas appliances in the home renders a dwelling uninhabitable due to their potential health harms. We further contend that tenants should invoke the implied warranty of habitability to eliminate the continued exposure to natural gas appliance-generated indoor air pollutants.

Fictional city of the future. Portrait of a Utopian society.

When Crafting Public Health Policy, the Perfect Shouldn’t Be the Enemy of the Good

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023 dgoldberg Leave a comment

By Daniel Goldberg

The nirvana fallacy “is the informal fallacy of comparing actual things with unrealistic, idealized alternatives.” Practice and policy guided by the nirvana fallacy discourages any action at all short of a perfect solution.

Sound familiar? It’s one justification for pandemic policy inaction in a nutshell.

Guadalupe, Ariz. / USA - October 31, 2020: As covid-19 cases rise across the country, Pascua Yaqui tribal council signs encourage people to take precautions and stay safe during the epidemic.

Sovereignty, Federalism, and Native Nations: Tribal Nations in a Public Health Emergency

March 7, 2023March 6, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Victoria Sutton

Native American Nations are sovereigns and acknowledged in the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has further established the sovereignty of Native Nations in early cases that form the foundation of Federal Indian Law.

Improving the Future of Public Health by Applauding Appropriate Judicial Oversight

March 2, 2023February 28, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Marshall B. Kapp

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Health Establishment (PHE)/legal enterprise collaborative fell short of constitutional standards in a number of situations, resulting in adverse judicial rulings of which the PHE and its like-minded academic advocates now complain.

This unhappiness with judicial oversight is an opportunity for introspection. Rather than blaming nefarious or deplorable other forces, a better approach to rehabilitating and enhancing public health law in the future lies instead in the PHE taking stock of itself and committing to a more open-minded, humility infused, and objective approach to the definition of science, the role of expertise, and the better targeted and clearly justified employment of legal force in the next major public health emergency context.

Playing the Long Game for Public Health Law

March 1, 2023February 27, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Lance Gable

At the start of 2023, public health law in the United States faces two obvious structural shortcomings that need to be addressed: the inadequate fit between public health emergency powers and longer-lasting emergencies, and the increased susceptibility of public health law to dilution through political and judicial action.

President Joe Biden at desk in Oval Office.

Federalizing Public Health

February 28, 2023February 27, 2023 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Elizabeth Weeks

The most promising path forward in public health is to continue recognizing federal authority and responsibility in this space. I carefully choose “recognizing,” rather than “expanding” or “moving” because it is critical to the argument that federal authority for public health already exists within the federalist structure and that employing federal authority to address public health problems does not represent a dimunition of state authority. Rather than a pie, of which pieces consumed at the federal level necessarily reduce pieces consumable at the state level, we should envision the relationship as a Venn diagram, where increasing overlap strengthens authority for promoting and protecting public health broadly.

Tag: Health