Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:44:25.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emergency Declarations for Public Health Issues: Expanding Our Definition of Emergency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Gregory Sunshine ,
Nancy Barrera ,
Aubrey Joy Corcoran  and
Matthew Penn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Emergency declarations are a vital legal authority that can activate funds, personnel, and material and change the legal landscape to aid in the response to a public health threat. Traditionally, declarations have been used against immediate and unforeseen threats such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and pandemic influenza. Recently, however, states have used emergency declarations to address public health issues that have existed in communities for months and years and have risk factors such as poverty and substance misuse. Leaders in these states have chosen to use emergency powers that are normally reserved for sudden catastrophes to address these enduring public health issues. This article will explore emergency declarations as a legal mechanism for response; describe recent declarations to address hepatitis A and the opioid overdose epidemic; and seek to answer the question of whether it is appropriate to use emergency powers to address public health issues that are not traditionally the basis for an emergency declaration.

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 47 , Issue S2: 2018 Public Health Law Conference: Health Justice: Empowering Public Health and Advancing Health Equity , Summer 2019 , pp. 95 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Haffajee, R., Parmet, W. E., Mello, M. M., “What Is a Public Health ‘Emergency’?” New England Journal of Medicine 371, no. 11 (2014): 986-988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodge, J. G. Jr., and Anderson, E. D., “Principles and Practice of Legal Triage During Public Health Emergencies,” New York University Annual Survey of American Law 64 (2008): 249-290, at 264-269.Google Scholar
Sunshine, G., “The Case for Streamlining Emergency Declaration Authorities and Adapting Legal Requirements to Ever-Changing Public Health Threats,” Emory Law Journal 67 (2018): 397-414, at 400-401.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Ark. Code Ann. § 12-75-114; Fla. Stat. Ann. § 252.37(2).Google Scholar
See Hodge and Anderson, supra note 2Google Scholar
See Haffajee et al., supra note 1Google Scholar
Orenstein, D. G., “When Law Is Not Law: Setting Aside Legal Provisions during Declared Emergencies,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 41, Suppl. 1 (2013): 73-76; G. Sunshine, K. Thompson, A. N. Menon, N. Anderson, M. Penn, L. M. Koonin, “An Assessment of State Laws Providing Gubernatorial Authority to Remove Legal Barriers to Emergency Response,” Health Security 17, no. 2 (2019): 156-161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Haffajee et al., supra note 1Google Scholar
Md. Code Ann., Pub. Safety § 14-3A-01(c)Google Scholar
Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 24-33.5-703Google Scholar
See Haffajee et al., supra note 1Google Scholar
Id.; Rutkow, L., and Vernick, J. S., “Emergency Legal Authority and the Opioid Crisis,” New England Journal of Medicine 377, no. 26 (2017): 2512-2514; Ind. Exec. Order No. 17-13 (Feb. 9, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
County of San Diego, Hepatitis A Outbreak: After Action Report, at E-1, available at <https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/cosd/SanDiegoHepatitisAOutbreak-2017-18-AfterActionReport.pdf> (last visited February 22, 2019).+(last+visited+February+22,+2019).>Google Scholar
Gov. Edmund Brown Jr., Cal. Proc. (Oct. 13, 2017), available at <https://www.ca.gov/archive/gov39/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/10.13.17_Hepatitis_A_Emergency_Proclamation_-_Attested.pdf> (last visited May 6, 2019).+(last+visited+May+6,+2019).>Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Foster, M.,et al., “Hepatitis A Virus Outbreaks Associated with Drug Use and Homelessness — California, Kentucky, Michigan, and Utah, 2017,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 67 (2018): 1208–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office of the Governor Doug Ducey, “Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act Policy Primer,” available at <https://azgovernor.gov/sites/default/files/related-docs/arizona_opioid_epidemic_act_policy_primer.pdf> (last visited February 22, 2019); Arizona Department of Health Services, “Arizona Opioid Emergency Response: June 2017 to June 2018,” available at <https://www.azdhs.gov/documents/prevention/womens-childrens-health/injury-prevention/opioid-prevention/2017-opioid-emergency-response-report.pdf> (last visited February 22, 2019)+(last+visited+February+22,+2019);+Arizona+Department+of+Health+Services,+“Arizona+Opioid+Emergency+Response:+June+2017+to+June+2018,”+available+at++(last+visited+February+22,+2019)>Google Scholar
Gov. Doug Ducey, “Declaration of Emergency and Notification of Enhanced Surveillance Advisory *Opioid Overdose Epidemic*,” June 5, 2017, available at <https://azgovernor.gov/sites/default/files/related-docs/opioid_declaration.pdf> (last visited February 22, 2019).+(last+visited+February+22,+2019).>Google Scholar
Ariz. Rev. Stat. §§ 36-301(15), 36-303(D), & 36-787Google Scholar
See supra note 20Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
While an emergency declaration is not required to issue an enhanced surveillance advisory, consultation with the ADHS director must occur. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 36-782(A).Google Scholar
See supra note 20; see also Ariz. Admin. Code R9-10-120Google Scholar
See supra note 20.Google Scholar
See Arizona Opioid Emergency Response: June 2017 to June 2018, supra note 19.Google Scholar
See supra note 20Google Scholar
Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act of 2018, S.B. 1001, 53rd Ariz. Leg. Spec. Session 1 (enacted Jan. 26, 2018).Google Scholar
See Arizona Opioid Emergency Response: June 2017 to June 2018, supra note 19.Google Scholar
See Haffajee et al., supra note 1Google Scholar
IdGoogle Scholar
IdGoogle Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Ind. Exec. Order No. 15-05 (Mar. 26, 2015); See Ind. Exec. Order No. 17-13, supra note 12; See Rutkow & Vernick, supra note 12.Google Scholar
See Haffajee et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar