338 - Tying the Hands of Public Health
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2021
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
According to a new report by the Network for Public Health Law, several states are considering or have passed legislation to limit the ability of public health agencies to respond to infectious disease and other emergencies. At stake are the ability of health departments to impose quarantine to save lives or require masks for any conditions, including infectious tuberculosis. Donna Levin, National Director for the Network, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the history of public health authority, what's happening now in North Dakota, Kansas, and elsewhere; and the dangers of these ill-considered laws.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Season 4 of Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:13.0 | I'm Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, and a former Commissioner of Health in Baltimore City. |
| 0:20.0 | Our goal is to bring |
| 0:21.7 | scientific evidence and experience to current topics in public health through engaging interviews |
| 0:27.1 | with scientists, community leaders, policy experts, public health officials, clinicians, and more. |
| 0:32.8 | If you have ideas or questions for us to cover, please email us at public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:40.4 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:46.6 | Today, I speak with Donna Levin, the national director for the Network for Public Health Law. |
| 0:52.5 | Our topic is a recent report finding efforts in multiple states to reduce the ability of public |
| 0:58.2 | health agencies to protect the public during health emergencies. |
| 1:02.9 | Let's listen. |
| 1:04.6 | Donna Levin, thank you so much for joining me to talk about this report that the Network for |
| 1:08.9 | Public Health Law wrote for NACO, which is the |
| 1:12.4 | organization that represents local health departments around the country. What did you find? |
| 1:17.7 | Found that states have enacted quite a few very bad laws that are limiting public health authority. |
| 1:26.5 | So we've just come through this pandemic and health departments, governors, mayors, have taken |
| 1:34.2 | action to control the infectious disease. |
| 1:37.7 | Is that what you're referring to by public health authority? |
| 1:40.5 | Right. |
| 1:41.2 | So there have been various measures taken. |
| 1:43.9 | I think we're familiar with them. |
| 1:45.5 | Mask mandates, social distancing, quarantine of people who have been exposed to COVID-19, all to stop the spread of the disease. |
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