Tag: Privacy

Syringe being filled from a vial. Vaccine concept illustration.

Is Israel Trading Medical Information for Vaccines? Ethical and Legal Considerations

Shelly Simana Leave a comment

By Shelly Simana

On January 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that millions of vaccines are expected to arrive in Israel, and that by March, anyone who wishes to get vaccinated will be able to do so.

He concluded his speech with a controversial statement: “as part of the agreement [with Pfizer], we stipulated that Israel will serve as a global model state for a rapid vaccine rollout of an entire country… Israel will share with Pfizer, with all of humanity, the statistics that will help in developing strategies to defeat the coronavirus” (my translation, from Hebrew).

But which statistics, what kind of data, will be shared with Pfizer? This question remains a mystery.

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USB drive

The False Dilemmas of the Fifth Circuit’s HIPAA Ruling

Leslie Francis Leave a comment

By Leslie Francis

In a caustic opinion issued on January 14, the Fifth Circuit vacated penalties assessed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) against the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for HIPAA security breaches.

As has happened to many other health care entities, M.D. Anderson had employees who were not careful with their laptops and thumb drives (and the data therein). A laptop with the unencrypted protected health care information of nearly 30,000 patients was stolen. Unencrypted thumb drives with information on another almost 6,000 patients were lost. M.D. Anderson disclosed the security breaches to HHS, which assessed civil monetary penalties for violation of HIPAA’s encryption and disclosure rules. M.D. Anderson then filed a petition for review, which resulted in the Fifth Circuit holding that the agency action was arbitrary and capricious for failure to consider an important aspect of the problem.

Commentators have already pointed out that this decision will reverberate throughout the HIPAA enforcement world. As it does, I hope it is met with scorn, for it trades on the informal logical fallacy of the false dilemma in two noteworthy ways.

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AI concept art.

AI’s Legitimate Interest: Video Preview with Charlotte Tschider

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

The Health Law Policy, Bioethics, and Biotechnology Workshop provides a forum for discussion of new scholarship in these fields from the world’s leading experts.

The workshop is led by Professor I. Glenn Cohen, and presenters come from a wide range of disciplines and departments.

In this video, Charlotte Tschider gives a preview of her paper, “AI’s Legitimate Interest: Towards a Public Benefit Privacy Model,” which she will present at the Health Law Policy workshop on November 9, 2020. Watch the full video below:

Protest against Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro.

Between Gross Negligence and Genocide: Brazil’s Failed Response to COVID-19

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Octávio Luiz Motta Ferraz

When my first piece in this series was published on May 12th, Brazil counted 11,000 deaths caused by COVID-19. A new health secretary had just been appointed to replace Dr. Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was sacked for disagreeing with President Jair Bolsonaro’s views that the pandemic (which he infamously called a “little flu”) was a conspiracy of the media and that public health measures should be immediately lifted to avoid damage to the economy.

Fast forward to September 10th and the situation, predictably, has gotten significantly worse. Brazil now counts 128,539 deaths, the second highest number in absolute terms (after the U.S., where the death toll is 190,872), and the sixth in per capita terms, with just over 60 deaths per 100,000 population. When Brazil reached the 100,000 deaths mark in early August, the president thought it more appropriate to use his Twitter account to celebrate his football team’s win at the local tournament than to make any statement on the health crisis.

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Downtown Santiago, Chile.

The Novel Coronavirus and Civil Rights: An Update from Chile

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Lidia Casas Becerra

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues apace in Chile, a test of the country’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law looms close – in just over a month, a historic referendum will be held on the possibility to change the Constitution.

The plebiscite was a key political demand during the social mobilization after October 19, 2019. But since March 18, 2020, Chile has been under the state of constitutional catastrophe or calamity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which will continue at least through September 24, 2020.

Due to the pandemic, the date of the plebiscite was moved from April to October 25th after a political agreement between Congress and the executive. Chile does not have a system allowing for either electronic voting or voting by mail.

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Person typing on computer.

Telehealth Policy Brought to the Fore in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Vrushab Gowda Leave a comment

By Vrushab Gowda

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of telehealth as both a tool of necessity (e.g., minimizing infection risk, conserving thinly stretched healthcare resources, reducing cost) as well as of innovation.

Telehealth services have surged in recent months; in April alone, they constituted over 40 percent of primary care visits nationwide and over 73 percent of those in Boston. “Increasing Access to Care: Telehealth during COVID-19,” a recent publication in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, dissects the issues that have accompanied the growth of telehealth and identifies further areas of potential reform.

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stethoscope on computer keyboard

How Traditional Health Records Bolster Structural Racism

Adrian Gropper Leave a comment

By Adrian Gropper, MD

As the U.S. reckons with centuries of structural racism, an important step toward making health care more equitable will require transferring control of health records to patients and patient groups.

The Black Lives Matter movement calls upon us to review racism in all aspects of social policy, from law enforcement to health. Statistics show that Black Americans are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19. The reasons for these disparities are not entirely clear. Every obstacle to data collection makes it that much harder to find a rational solution, thereby increasing the death toll.

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German Bundestag.

Germany’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sara Gerke Leave a comment

By Sara Gerke

Many countries are looking these days to Germany’s approach to combating COVID-19. Although Germany initially experienced a high case rate, the country has been able to slow the spread of the virus and appears to have the situation better “under control” than other countries.

There may be various reasons for Germany’s successful handling of the pandemic so far, ranging from early testing for COVID-19 to high public outreach and transparency to increasing the number of ICU beds and ventilators.

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Reykjavík, Iceland.

COVID-19, Civil Rights, and the Rule of Law: The Case of Iceland

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Hrefna D.  Gunnarsdóttir

Response and Restrictions

In the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Iceland rolled out an extensive strategy of testing, isolating, contact tracing, quarantining, and social distancing, which has helped the country avoid the most drastic rights restrictions.

Diagnostic testing of those with symptoms started almost a month before the first case was identified in late February. By early March, hospitals and nursing homes closed to visitors, and public health authorities teamed up with a private company, deCODE genetics, to collect samples from symptom-free/mildly symptomatic residents. The collaboration (while controversial) provided valuable information on the prevalence of COVID-19 to tailor Iceland’s response. Read More

Delhi, India.

COVID-19 in India: Lockdown, Legal Challenges, and Disparate Impacts

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Anand Grover

With only four hours’ notice, the Government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19, which began on March 24th, 2020 and is scheduled to end on May 17th, 2020.

The lockdown was implemented through executive orders, beginning March 24th, 2020, together with guidelines under the Disaster Management Act (DMA).

Only essential services, such as those related to security, government, food, medical supplies, and municipal cleaning, were permitted to continue operations, albeit sometimes in a curtailed manner. Inter-state and district borders were sealed. All persons, except those engaged in essential services, were mandated to stay at home and observe social distancing. Testing, quarantine and contact tracing were employed to detect and prevent further transmission of the virus. Breach of orders was criminally punishable.

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