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Non-State Actors and Public Health Emergencies

Bill of Health

By Rossella De Falco Strong, well-coordinated and resilient public health care services play a vital role in preventing and responding to public health crises. A range of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies have further contributed to interpret the human rights implications of private actors’ involvement in health care.

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Reviewing Solidarity in the Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Public Health Emergencies

Bill of Health

By Eduardo Arenas Catalán The Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Public Health Emergencies (the Principles), entail a notable attempt to consolidate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The critical notion of shared but differentiated responsibilities is thus strengthened within global public health.

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How the Supreme Court’s Judicial Activism Compromises Public Health

Bill of Health

By John Culhane The United States Supreme Court poses a serious threat to public health, but not because the majority of the justices are necessarily opposed to laws and policies designed to protect and further public health and safety. Nor do we know much about public health policy.” In West Virginia v.

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

Bill of Health

For example, public health officials at virtually every level have resisted implementation or reinstatement of mask mandates in part by arguing that either some percentage of the population will not mask or that mask mandates alone will be ineffective. Sound familiar? It’s one justification for pandemic policy inaction in a nutshell.

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Black surgical patients used telehealth more often in late 2020

Healthcare It News

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons sought to take a closer look at the patients who sought surgical consultations in-person and via telemedicine in 2020. And between June 24 and December 2020, Black patients were more likely to use virtual surgical consultations. Black patients represented 8.8%

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Federal Failures to Protect Incarcerated People During Public Health Crises

Bill of Health

Decarceration would obviously go a long way in stopping the ongoing harms of COVID-19 in prisons and jails, and preventing such harms from future pandemics and public health crises. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first guidance on COVID-19 to carceral facilities on March 23, 2020.

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

Bill of Health

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. The law protects a large and diverse group of people, which, in 2020, included 1 in 4 adults in the U.S.