Quarantine Authority in Texas: A COVID-19 Case Study

Author(s):  
Kevin Price

Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world grappled with how to protect their citizens from disease. Governments had to carefully balance the tension between individual rights and public health measures, while also considering which level of government was best situated to act. This paper, focusing on the response to COVID-19 in Texas, discusses the constitutionality of quarantines by balancing individual rights and public health. This paper also discusses how quarantine authority is shared among local, state, and federal levels of government in Texas. Finally, this paper analyzes some of the early actions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mainak Bardhan ◽  
Debolina Pramanik ◽  
Rizana Riyaz ◽  
Mohammad Mehedi Hasan ◽  
Mohammad Yasir Essar

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in the world from last year, and any further insults like Zika virus will surely bring the apocalypse unto us. In July 2021, Zika began spreading in India, mainly in the state of Kerala. Zika infection resembles closely COVID-19 and other arboviral infections, which might lead to delayed and misdiagnosis, further leading to underreporting of cases. Some of the feared complications of Zika include Guillain–Barré syndrome and congenital Zika syndrome leading to microcephaly. Thus, Zika virus disease (ZVD) has significant public health and social impacts. Since the trifecta of infectious diseases (host, agent and environment) are all conducive to the spread of Zika in India, there is a huge risk that ZVD might become endemic in India, which is especially dangerous in the backdrop of this pandemic. This has to be stopped at all costs: the main aspects of which are public health measures, vector control and early diagnosis, especially in case of pregnant women. The diversion of healthcare resources for this pandemic has albeit made this difficult, but we must do our bit if we have to overcome this situation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 1011-1027
Author(s):  
Andrew David Mitchell ◽  
Theodore Samlidis

AbstractAustralia became the first country to introduce standardised or plain packaging laws for tobacco products in 2011. However, they immediately came under direct and indirect challenge from the tobacco industry in various domestic and international fora, including at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO-consistency of Australia's measures was not settled until June 2020, when the Appellate Body upheld two WTO panels’ earlier findings that Australia had acted consistently with its obligations under certain WTO agreements. This article critically analyses the Appellate Body's key findings and their implications for implementing other public health measures. It is shown that these implications are multifaceted, have political, practical and legal dimensions and are likely to reach beyond the WTO dispute resolution system's bounds into other international trade and investment law contexts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Porcher

AbstractFollowing the COVID-19 outbreak, governments all around the world have implemented public health and economic measures to contain the spread of the virus and to support the economy. Public health measures include domestic lockdown, school closures and bans on mass gatherings among others. Economic measures cover wage support, cash transfers, interest rates cuts, tax cuts and delays, and support to exporters or importers. This paper introduces ‘Response2covid19’, a living dataset of governments’ responses to COVID-19. The dataset codes the various policy interventions with their dates at the country-level for more than 200 countries from January 1 to October 1, 2020 and is updated every month. The production of detailed data on the measures taken by governments can help generate robust evidence to support public health and economic decision making.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-164
Author(s):  
Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) presents a great challenge to developing countries with limited access to public health measures in grassroots communities. The World Health Organization lauded the Vietnamese government for its proactive and steady investment in health facilities that mitigate the risk of the infectious disease in Vietnam. This short communication presents cases that could benchmark public health policies in developing countries.


2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy E. Parmet ◽  
Anthony Robbins

Public health professionals recognize the critical role the law plays in determining the success of public health measures. Even before September 11, 2001, public health experience with tobacco use, HIV, industrial pollution and other potent threats to the health of the public demonstrated that laws can assist or thwart public health efforts. The new focus on infectious threats and bioterrorism, starting with the anthrax attacks through the mail and continuing with SARS, has highlighted the important role of law.For lawyers to serve as effective partners in public health, they should have a basic familiarity with public health: how public health professionals see the world and the key issues they tackle. A practical grasp of public health can be acquired, and often is acquired, “on the job.”


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Bonell ◽  
Lucie Contamin ◽  
Pham Quang Thai ◽  
Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy ◽  
Rogier H van Doorn ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health burden, with an estimated quarter of the world’s population being infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the “End TB Strategy” in 2014 emphasising knowing the epidemic. WHO ranks Vietnam 12 th in the world of high burden countries. TB spatial and temporal patterns have been observed globally with evidence of Vitamin D playing a role in seasonality. We explored the presence of temporal and spatial clustering of TB in Vietnam and their determinants to aid public health measures. Methods: Data were collected by the National TB program of Vietnam from 2010-2015 and linked to the following datasets: socio-demographic characteristics; climatic variables; influenza-like-illness (ILI) incidence; geospatial data. The TB dataset was aggregated by province and quarter. Descriptive time series analyses using LOESS regression were completed per province to determine seasonality and trend. Harmonic regression was used to determine the amplitude of seasonality by province. A mixed-effect linear model was used with province and year as random effects and all other variables as fixed effects. Results: There were 610,676 cases of TB notified between 2010-2015 in Vietnam. Heat maps of TB incidence per quarter per province showed substantial temporal and geospatial variation. Time series analysis demonstrated seasonality throughout the country, with peaks in spring/summer and troughs in autumn/winter. Incidence was consistently higher in the south, the three provinces with the highest incidence per 100,000 population were Tay Ninh, An Giang and Ho Chi Minh City. However, relative seasonal amplitude was more pronounced in the north. Mixed-effect linear model confirmed that TB incidence was associated with time and latitude. Of the demographic, socio-economic and health related variables, population density, percentage of those under 15 years of age, and HIV infection prevalence per province were associated with TB incidence. Of the climate variables, absolute humidity, average temperature and sunlight were associated with TB incidence. Conclusion : Preventative public health measures should be focused in the south of Viet Nam where incidence is highest. Vitamin D is unlikely to be a strong driver of seasonality but supplementation may play a role in a package of interventions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Simon

What are the political and ontological implications of COVID‑19? I had plenty of time to reflect on this from March to July after I ended fieldwork in Guam and unexpectedly spent four months in Taiwan. Because of Taiwan’s proximity to China, where the pandemic began, it initially seemed as if it would be among the most serious cases. Instead, Taiwan’s public health measures allowed it to become one of the few places in the world relatively untouched by the virus. The experience of Taiwan with COVID‑19 was shaped most of all by tense relations with China and the non-recognition of the country by the World Health Organization (WHO). There are also intriguing differences within Taiwan where historically Chinese settler groups and Indigenous peoples related to other Pacific Islanders find their place in the world through a broad spectrum of non-Western ontologies. In travelogue genre, I reflect upon their different stories and practices of worlding as fears of the pandemic ontributed to a heightened sense of crisis, ethnic tensions, and a rise in nationalism. This reveals important ontological differences that will continue to influence the geopolitics of the region even beyond the current pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan V. Nicolau ◽  
Alexander Hasson ◽  
Mona Bafadhel

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented demands on healthcare systems worldwide and exacting a massive humanitarian toll. This makes the development of accurate predictive models imperative, not just for understanding the course of the pandemic but more importantly for gaining insight into the efficacy of public health measures and planning accordingly. Epidemiological models are forced to make assumptions about many unknowns and therefore can be unreliable. Here, taking an empirical approach, we report a 20-30 day lag between the peak of confirmed to recovered cases and the peak of daily deaths in each country, independent of the epoch of that country in its pandemic cycle. This analysis is expected to be largely independent of the proportion of the population being tested and therefore should aid in planning around the timing and easing of public health measures. Our data also suggests broad predictions for the number of fatalities, generally somewhat lower than most other models. Finally, our model suggests that the world as a whole is shortly to enter a recovery phase, at least as far as the first pandemic wave is concerned.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Mers

As the discussion on the introduction of mandatory vaccinations shows, there is nearly always a conflict between individual rights and public interests regarding public health questions. This book analyses if German infectious disease law has succeeded in solving this conflict. For this purpose, the conditions under which public health measures can be justified are considered. Based on this, the author examines if the central statutory provisions are in accordance with the constitution. In particular, this book deals with the question under which circumstances mandatory vaccinations can be established and whether the general clauses legally defined in German infectious disease law are in line with the constitution.


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