HealthLawProf Blog

In Future How Companies Should Mitigate the Effects of Natural Disasters Such as Covid-19 Pandemic on Companies: A Corporate Governance Perspective

Anthony Tapiwa Mazikana (Independent), In Future How Companies Should Mitigate the Effects of Natural Disasters Such as Covid-19 Pandemic on Companies: A Corporate Governance Perspective (2023):

This write up focuses much on how to mitigate the effects of natural disasters like COVID-19 pandemic on companies. It should be noted with concern that developing countries define the concept of Covid 19 with respect to their economic, political and social contexts (Sifile, Mazikana and Bhebhe, 2018). According to the World Health Organization (2020) formally classified coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Most nations throughout the world have recorded at least a few instances of COVID-19. This report seeks to present information on how to mitigate the effects of natural disasters like COVID-19 pandemic on companies. Companies such as NRZ, COTTCO AND TELECEL Zimbabwe shall be adopted as distressed organizations.

The Courts and Effective Judicial Protection during the Covid-19 Pandemic. A Comparative Analysis

Paola Iamiceli (University of Trento), Fabrizio Cafaggi (Independent), The Courts and Effective Judicial Protection during the Covid-19 Pandemic. A Comparative Analysis,1 Bio L. J. (2023): 

What role have the courts played during the pandemic? How different has this role been across the globe? Can lessons for a better response to health crises and emergencies be learned from litigation? Starting from these questions, the authors present the main findings of an international project on Covid-19 litigation aimed at collecting and comparing caselaw, within an openly accessible database, from more than 80 countries on all continents, concerning the impact of public health measures upon fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens during the pandemic. This comparative analysis, based on a set of around 2000 decisions from 2020 - 2022, shows that, although courts have faced very similar challenges, distinct legal traditions have led judges to use different balancing techniques with different outcomes in terms of the control of public powers and available remedies. Actions and omissions have been differently addressed and the evolution of science has significantly impacted judicial review. Areas of litigation have changed overtime, mirroring the evolution of the pandemic and the modifications of governmental strategies. More recently, liability claims are emerging and will probably grow in the near future, offering courts from all over the world a further opportunity to learn from each other. Based on the experience of governments, revisited through the lenses of Covid-19 litigation, scholars, scientists, and policy makers have the opportunity to build on this heritage with the objective of building a better response to future health emergencies that fully respect fundamental rights and the rule of law.

The Ethical Use of Observation Units: Empowering Physician Autonomy for Patient Placement Decisions

Julie Campbell (DePaul University), Emily Mann (Independent), Kathy Lee (Independent), The Ethical Use of Observation Units: Empowering Physician Autonomy for Patient Placement Decisions, 22 Hous. J. Health L. & Pol’y. 1 (2023): 

Professional ethics and a legal fiduciary duty require that physicians put the interests of their patients ahead of their own, even if that may put them at odds with their employers. When physicians abdicate or somehow lose their ability to decide what care is in the best interests of their patients, patients lose their most valuable and powerful advocate in the health care setting. This potentially impacts not only the quality of patient care, but the cost of that care.

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Masks as Dialectic of Post-Pandemic Era and Daily Turn in Pandemic: Vision Analysis of Masks

Yu-Yang Chen (National Taipei University of Education), Masks as Dialectic of Post-Pandemic Era and Daily Turn in Pandemic: Vision Analysis of Masks (2023):

Masks are an important part of human life in pandemic society, but in addition to their medical uses, masks have also begun to show different roles in today’s epidemic situation. This article will start with the pandemic and masks, then discuss whether we are entering the post-pandemic era or whether the pandemic routine is becoming daily routine. Finally, this article discusses the power exercise of masks from a visual analysis.

A Scoping Review of the Impacts of COVID-19 Physical Distancing Measures on Vulnerable Population Groups

Lili Li (National University of Singapore), Araz Taeihagh (National University of Singapore), Si Ying Tan (National University of Singapore), A Scoping Review of the Impacts of COVID-19 Physical Distancing Measures on Vulnerable Population Groups, 14 Nat Commun 599 (2023):

Most governments have enacted physical or social distancing measures to control COVID-19 transmission. Yet little is known about the socio-economic trade-offs of these measures, especially for vulnerable populations, who are exposed to increased risks and are susceptible to adverse health outcomes. To examine the impacts of physical distancing measures on the most vulnerable in society, this scoping review screened 39,816 records and synthesised results from 265 studies worldwide documenting the negative impacts of physical distancing on older people, children/students, low-income populations, migrant workers, people in prison, people with disabilities, sex workers, victims of domestic violence, refugees, ethnic minorities, and people from sexual and gender minorities. We show that prolonged loneliness, mental distress, unemployment, income loss, food insecurity, widened inequality and disruption of access to social support and health services were unintended consequences of physical distancing that impacted these vulnerable groups and highlight that physical distancing measures exacerbated the vulnerabilities of different vulnerable populations.

Effects of Ageism

Alan S. Gutterman (Independent), Effects of Ageism (2023):

Strong societal beliefs and practices causing stereotyping of older persons and discrimination against them are consigning large segments of the population of older adults to poor health, diminished cognitive ability, social isolation and boredom. At the structural level, evidence indicates that ageism leads to denied access to health services and treatments, older persons’ exclusion from health research, devalued lives and lack of work opportunities. At the individual level, ageism causes older persons to experience reduced longevity, poor quality of life, poor social relationships, risky health behaviors, mental illness, cognitive impairment and physical illness.

Reversing Reverse Mainstreaming

Yaron Covo (Columbia Unviersity), Reversing Reverse Mainstreaming, 75 Stan. L. Rev. 601 (2023):

For almost five decades, school districts in the United States have been required by federal law to integrate disabled students into mainstream classrooms. Many educational agencies, however, have also done the opposite: They have included nondisabled students in special education settings. This practice, now known as “reverse mainstreaming,” has historical roots in nineteenth-century educational programs and is still used across the country.

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Mindful Debiasing: Meditation as a Tool to Address Disability Discrimination

Elizabeth F. Emens (Columbia University), Mindful Debiasing: Meditation as a Tool to Address Disability Discrimination, 53 Conn. L. Rev. 4 (2022):

Antidiscrimination law is at a critical juncture. The law prohibits formal and explicit systems of exclusion, but much bias nonetheless persists. New tools are needed. This Article argues that mindfulness meditation may be a powerful strategy in the battle against disability discrimination. This Article sets out eight reasons that disability bias is particularly intractable. The Article then draws on empirical, philosophical, and scholarly sources to identify mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation can address these dynamics. The Article concludes by presenting concrete doctrinal implications of bringing mindfulness to bear on disability discrimination. This Article thus contributes to the established fields of antidiscrimination law in general and disability law in particular, as well as the emerging domain of mindfulness and law.

Compassion Without COVID-19: The Potential for Continued Expansion of Federal Compassionate Release After the Coronavirus Pandemic

Nikita Datta (Columbia University), Compassion Without COVID-19: The Potential for Continued Expansion of Federal Compassionate Release After the Coronavirus Pandemic, 51 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. (2023):

This Note examines courts' novel analysis of medical compassionate release petitions during the pandemic and consider the future of medical compassionate release. This Note argues that the framework for analysis of medical compassionate release used to evaluate pandemic-related petitions was both more appropriate than and meaningfully different from the one applied to non-pandemic related petitions.

Beyond Traditional Clinics: Adding a Legal Information Component

Deeya Haldar (Villanova University), Jane Voegele (Villanova University), Beyond Traditional Clinics: Adding a Legal Information Component (2023):

In March of 2020, the world we all knew grinded to a halt. All areas of life were affected, including the legal system. In a matter of days, the usual dissemination of much-needed legal information and the provision of legal services to low-income individuals ceased, while simultaneously the legal needs of these individuals increased exponentially in a rapidly changing landscape. In response to the emerging needs of its own University staff, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law created the COVID-19 Legal Research Project, aimed researching and delivering relevant, individualized, legal information designed to address the various legal challenges University staff were facing because of the pandemic. The Project consisted of two faculty directors and twenty-two law student research assistants utilizing both an online platform and a modified intake system. The Project began in the summer of 2020 and then continued in a modified form throughout the academic year 2020-2021.

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Mapping the Paradigm of Disabilities in Afghanistan from the Lens of Law and Policy

Sayed Qudrat Hashimy (University of Mysore), Mapping the Paradigm of Disabilities in Afghanistan from the Lens of Law and Policy, 6 Asian J. Arts, Human., & Soc. Stud. 1 (2023):

Disability is a cross-cutting issue in Afghanistan. After four decades of armed conflict, it is unknown how many Afghans are disabled, and accurate data are scarce. Afghanistan has over a million people with disabilities, and their situation is generally poor. While war and landmines rendered hundreds of thousands of Afghans crippled, many more suffered birth defects, accidents, hunger, and diseases that could have been avoided but the inner lives of those with impairments do not concern most the others in an armed conflict state. The interactions with people who have disabilities have been a brief “Salam Alaikum” (Hello) and a respectful “Tashakor” or “Manana” (Thank you). However, many people with disabilities experience stigma, prejudice, and exclusion from society. Still, neither the government nor the international non-governmental organisation has disclosed the statistical information and challenges that differently-abled persons face in Afghanistan it could be male or female. This article looks closely at the legal system in Afghanistan that protects the people with disabilities that they need to engage in public life on an equal footing with other people. The current study uses a doctrinal approach with an emancipatory perspective on impairments to suggest possible solutions to alleviate and improve their situations. The study is limited to drawing the attention of NGOs and policymakers to mid the condition of people with disability from the breath and the length of Afghanistan. In this article, the study has focused mainly on the legislative framework and the issues that smoke screens the overreach of the law for the protection of disabilities and prohibit discrimination in public life, also exposing obstacles that impediment people who are physically or mentally challenged.

Legal Protection of Doctors in Performing Medical Actions Based on Law Number 29 of 2004 Concerning Medical Practice

Sri Murtini (Universitas Islam Riau), Thamrin (Universitas Islam Riau), Abdul Thalib (Universitas Islam Riau), Ellydar Chaidir (Universitas Islam Riau), Efendi Ibnu Susilo (Universitas Islam Riau), Legal Protection of Doctors in Performing Medical Actions Based on Law Number 29 of 2004 Concerning Medical Practice, 2 L. & Human. Q. Rev. 1 (2023):

This paper is a study that analyzes the legal protection of doctors in providing medical practice services based on law number 29 of 2004 concerning medical practice. Medical services provided to patients are called medical actions that aim to achieve a cure from an illness. Medical action certainly has risks for the patient in its implementation so that an agreement is needed from both parties, namely the doctor and the patient to carry out medical action, which is preceded by informed consent through a therapeutic transaction. The approach used in this study is a normative legal approach. The results of the study show that legal protection for doctors in carrying out medical actions is only stated in article 50 letter a, but it does not explain how the rules and procedures for legal protection for doctors themselves, more then regulate the patient's rights if they suffer a loss against a doctor's medical actions, This creates a feeling of injustice for the medical profession where lawsuits and demands from patients or the patient's family always use all legal domains, both criminal, civil and administrative which ignore the existence of an agreement in the approval of medical action and also violate the legal principle of ne bis en idem.

Did COVID-19 Increase Educational Inequality?

Philipp Breidenbach (RWI), Valentin Lukas Hörnig (RWI), Sandra Schaffner (RWI), Did COVID-19 Increase Educational Inequality? (2023):

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, many measures were taken during the pandemic. These measures also affected pupils, like the multiple school closures. Children from different backgrounds are likely to have different abilities to cope with the challenges of the pandemic and associated countermeasures. We investigate whether the already existing differences between schools in high and low income neighborhoods increased even further. Our results show that the transition rate from primary schools to the academic track decreased by 1.3 percentage points more in low income neighborhoods relative to high income neighborhoods, suggesting that the pandemic has increased educational inequality in Germany.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: It’s Time to Catch Up to the Science

John Molot (University of Ottawa), Margaret Sears (Independent), Hymie Anisman (Independent), Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: It’s Time to Catch Up to the Science (2023):

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a complex medical condition associated with low dose chemical exposures. It is characterized by diverse features and common comorbidities, including fibromyalgia, cough hypersensitivity, asthma, migraine and stress/anxiety, with which MCS shares numerous neurobiological processes and altered functioning within diverse brain regions. Predictive factors linked to MCS comprise genetic influences, gene-environment interactions, oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, cell dysfunction, and psychosocial influences. The development of MCS may be attributed to the sensitization of transient receptor potential (TRP) receptors, notably TRPV1 and TRPA1. Capsaicin inhalation challenge studies demonstrated that TRPV1 sensitization is manifested in MCS, and functional brain imaging studies revealed that TRPV1 and TRPA1 agonists promote brain-region specific neuronal variations. Unfortunately, MCS has often been inappropriately viewed as stemming exclusively from psychological disturbances, which has fostered patients being stigmatized and ostracized, and often being denied accommodation for their disability. Evidence-based education is essential to provide appropriate support and advocacy. Greater recognition of receptor-mediated biological mechanisms should be incorporated in laws and regulation of environmental exposures.

Public Health in a Post-Pandemic World: Need for an Accountable Approach?

Srividhya Ragavan (Texas A&M University), Swaraj P. Barooah (Independent), Public Health in a Post-Pandemic World: Need for an Accountable Approach? (2023):

The paper will be based on the assertion that trade and public health can and should work in a symbiotic fashion. Thus, finding common platforms to tap into the synergies that connect trade and IP rights with public health is the way forward. It is important to foster innovation without making IP a barrier to global public health and by association, trade. The article will focus on an alternate framework - a Public Health Treaty – to work within the trade regime complex of which IP is an integral part, but in close nexus with the World Health Organization. Given the work that WTO, WIPO and the WHO has commenced together, a framework along the lines of a Public Health will be critical to strengthen the trilateral cooperation.

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Historic Tensions Involving International Intellectual Property Protection of Medical Technology with Disastrous Public Health Consequences

Srividhya Ragavan (Texas A&M University), Swaraj P. Barooah (Independent), Historic Tensions Involving International Intellectual Property Protection of Medical Technology with Disastrous Public Health Consequences (2023):

Historic tensions have pervaded the alliance of intellectual property's ill-fated accord with trade. The intersections of the alliance have impacted access to medical technologies resulting in plaguing public health with disastrous consequences in select parts of the globe, the first of which was perhaps most notably seen during the HIV-AIDS crisis at the turn of the century. At this time, WTO’s sacrosanct norms from the accord between trade and intellectual property rights essentially force African countries to choose between international trade sanctions, and saving thousands of lives by allowing exceptions to patent rights. While much has been written about global public health, especially post-pandemic, not much or perhaps more accurately, not enough has been said about the consequences arising from the ill-fitting accommodation of intellectual property rights into the trade regime and its impact on medical technology. Even less has been written about the history of the alliance and how it was fated to affect global public health right from conception, leading to a loss of access to medical innovations globally.

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Think Globally on Climate, Act Locally on Leaf Blowers

Mark Nevitt (Emory University), Think Globally on Climate, Act Locally on Leaf Blowers, Reg. Rev. (2023):

As nations gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last fall for the latest United Nations climate conference, the language of complex international climate negotiations—“loss and damage,” “nationally determined contributions,” “global stocktake”—can seem far removed from the realities of our day-to-day life. For the growing chorus of people concerned about climate change but unsure of the next steps to avert climate disaster, listen to the noise emanating from the yard next door. We should work collectively to regulate, and ultimately ban, gas-powered leaf blowers in our neighborhoods.

Climate, Health, and Equity Implications of Large Facility Pollution Sources in New Mexico

Gabriel Pacyniak (University of New Mexico), Angélica Ruiz (Independent), Shannon Sanchez-Youngman(University of New Mexico), Elena Krieger (Independent), Climate, Health, and Equity Implications of Large Facility Pollution Sources in New Mexico (2023):

This report examines the climate- and health-damaging pollution from large stationary sources in New Mexico. The report identifies 189 stationary sources that together contribute approximately 25 percent of the state’s climate pollution along with a large share of conventional pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds. The largest share of pollution from these sources comes from the electric power and oil and gas sectors. Other large stationary sources include mines, manufacturing facilities, airports, and universities. The report also analyzes where large sources are located and suggested that there may be equity benefits to reducing emissions in those areas with a high percentage of people of color, lower-income people, or people with health vulnerabilities. Four regions—the San Juan Basin; Permian Basin; Albuquerque, Bernalillo, and Sandoval Counties; and Las Cruces and Dona Aña County—were identified as areas with clusters of large stationary sources. Finally, the report finds that current state policies are not adequate to achieve climate pollution reductions from these sources in keeping with the state’s climate goals, but identifies ways that climate pollution policies could be designed to both reduce climate pollution and maximize public health benefits for communities where these sources are located.

 

Judicial Review of Public Health Powers Since the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Trends and Implications

Wendy E. Parmet (Northeastern University), Faith Khalik (Northeastern University), Judicial Review of Public Health Powers Since the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Trends and Implications, Am. J. Pub. Health (Forthcoming):

During the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in the United States at all levels of government utilized their legal authorities to impose a wide range of measures designed to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; the causative agent of COVID-19), including shutting down businesses, limiting the size of gatherings, requiring masking, and mandating vaccination. These orders and regulations were challenged in court cases that resulted in more than 1000 judicial decisions. Common claims were based on alleged procedural and substantive due process violations, violations of religious liberty, and violations of officials’ scope of authority. In more than three fourths of the decisions, the court refused to grant the plaintiffs the relief sought. However, plaintiffs found success in several notable cases, especially in federal court. These recent decisions, as well as broader prepandemic trends, have important implications for public health officials’ exercise of their public health powers, especially when those exercises implicate religious liberty. In this legal environment, officials may need to rely more on the powers of persuasion than on their legal authority alone.

The Contours of Gun Industry Immunity: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Second Amendment

Hillel Y. Levin (University of Georgia), Timothy D. Lytton (University of Georgia), The Contours of Gun Industry Immunity: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Second Amendment, 75 Fla. L. Rev. (Forthcoming, 2023):

In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), granting the firearms industry sweeping immunity from civil lawsuits. However, PLCAA immunity is not absolute. This Article demonstrates that both state and federal courts have fundamentally misread PLCAA when adjudicating cases involving the scope of gun industry immunity. Properly understood, PLCAA permits lawsuits against the gun industry so long as they are based on statutory causes of action rather than common law. While broadly preempting state common law claims, PLCAA affords state legislatures autonomy in deciding how to regulate the gun industry within their borders.

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