CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 12, 2014

[sharon sanders]

via email -


Subject: Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar
Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM
Public Health Law Banner
Thursday, August 7, 2014

Public Health Law Program,
Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


Special Announcements

Ebola and the Law: What You Need to Know
The Network for Public Health Law (the Network), CDC’s Public Health Law Program (PHLP), and the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) are co-hosting a free webinar, Ebola and the Law: What You Need to Know, on Tuesday, August 12, 2014, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm (EDT). The webinar will describe the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone,

discuss legal issues that arise when infected patients enter the US, and explore legal powers and duties health department personnel have if an Ebola outbreak occurs in the US.

Speakers will accept questions from participants at the end of the presentation.

zhttps://networkforphl.webex.com/mw0401l/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=networkforphl&servi ce=6&rnd=0.0782442602425174&main_url=https%3A%2F%2 Fnetworkforphl.webex.com%2Fec0701l%2Feventcenter%2 Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26con fViewID%3D1749947180%26%26MK%3D668698095%26%26%26s iteurl%3Dnetworkforphl

[sharon sanders]

Re: CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM

The government has vast powers to anything that they want.

Webinar over.

[JimO]

Re: CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM

That sounds ominous...

The government has vast powers to anything that they want.

Webinar over.

[Shiloh]

Re: CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM

They may not be able to force you to take treatment but they can quarantine you so that you do not spread the disease. It's been the case with folks who escape TB treatment. There was a runaway in CA recently.

[Nika]

Re: CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM

Do we want infected antivaxer Joe Schmos using salt water neti pot as their sole ebola treatment plan free access to public places? Our populace is woefully and often willfully ignorant of basic biology, basic medical practices and wholly lacking in first hand experience with a world of nasty real infectious diseases (the likes of which not seen since Joe Schmo's grandpa was a kid)

[sharon sanders]

Re: CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM

Extended webinar time by 30 minutes...

via email -

Friday, August 8, 2014

Public Health Law Program,
Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


Special Announcements

Ebola and the Law: What You Need to Know
The Network for Public Health Law (the Network), CDC?s Public Health Law Program (PHLP), and the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) are co-hosting a free webinar, Ebola and the Law: What You Need to Know, on Tuesday, August 12, 2014, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm (EDT). The webinar will describe the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, discuss legal issues that arise when infected patients enter the US, and explore legal powers and duties health department personnel have if an Ebola outbreak occurs in the US. Speakers will accept questions from participants at the end of the presentation.

[sharon sanders]

Re: CDC - Public Health Law News Special Announcement: Ebola and the Law Webinar Date: Aug 8, 2014 10:19 AM

That sounds ominous...

Florida, for instance...

Title XXIX
PUBLIC HEALTH

Chapter 381
PUBLIC HEALTH: GENERAL PROVISIONS

381.00315 Public health advisories; public health emergencies; quarantines.—The State Health Officer is responsible for declaring public health emergencies and quarantines and issuing public health advisories.

snip


The State Health Officer, upon declaration of a public health emergency, may take actions that are necessary to protect the public health. Such actions include, but are not limited to:

1. Directing manufacturers of prescription drugs or over-the-counter drugs who are permitted under chapter 499 and wholesalers of prescription drugs located in this state who are permitted under chapter 499 to give priority to the shipping of specified drugs to pharmacies and health care providers within geographic areas that have been identified by the State Health Officer. The State Health Officer must identify the drugs to be shipped. Manufacturers and wholesalers located in the state must respond to the State Health Officer’s priority shipping directive before shipping the specified drugs.

2. Notwithstanding chapters 465 and 499 and rules adopted thereunder, directing pharmacists employed by the department to compound bulk prescription drugs and provide these bulk prescription drugs to physicians and nurses of county health departments or any qualified person authorized by the State Health Officer for administration to persons as part of a prophylactic or treatment regimen.

3. Notwithstanding s. 456.036, temporarily reactivating the inactive license of the following health care practitioners, when such practitioners are needed to respond to the public health emergency: physicians licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459; physician assistants licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459; licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and advanced registered nurse practitioners licensed under part I of chapter 464; respiratory therapists licensed under part V of chapter 468; and emergency medical technicians and paramedics certified under part III of chapter 401. Only those health care practitioners specified in this paragraph who possess an unencumbered inactive license and who request that such license be reactivated are eligible for reactivation. An inactive license that is reactivated under this paragraph shall return to inactive status when the public health emergency ends or prior to the end of the public health emergency if the State Health Officer determines that the health care practitioner is no longer needed to provide services during the public health emergency. Such licenses may only be reactivated for a period not to exceed 90 days without meeting the requirements of s. 456.036 or chapter 401, as applicable.

4. Ordering an individual to be examined, tested, vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for communicable diseases that have significant morbidity or mortality and present a severe danger to public health. Individuals who are unable or unwilling to be examined, tested, vaccinated, or treated for reasons of health, religion, or conscience may be subjected to quarantine.

a. Examination, testing, vaccination, or treatment may be performed by any qualified person authorized by the State Health Officer.
b. If the individual poses a danger to the public health, the State Health Officer may subject the individual to quarantine. If there is no practical method to quarantine the individual, the State Health Officer may use any means necessary to vaccinate or treat the individual.
Any order of the State Health Officer given to effectuate this paragraph shall be immediately enforceable by a law enforcement officer under s. 381.0012.
(2) Individuals who assist the State Health Officer at his or her request on a volunteer basis during a public health emergency are entitled to the benefits specified in s. 110.504(2), (3), (4), and (5).
(3) To facilitate effective emergency management, when the United States Department of Health and Human Services contracts for the manufacture and delivery of licensable products in response to a public health emergency and the terms of those contracts are made available to the states, the department shall accept funds provided by counties, municipalities, and other entities designated in the state emergency management plan required under s. 252.35(2)(a) for the purpose of participation in those contracts. The department shall deposit those funds in the Grants and Donations Trust Fund and expend those funds on behalf of the donor county, municipality, or other entity for the purchase of the licensable products made available under the contract.
(4) The department has the duty and the authority to declare, enforce, modify, and abolish quarantines of persons, animals, and premises as the circumstances indicate for controlling communicable diseases or providing protection from unsafe conditions that pose a threat to public health, except as provided in ss. 384.28 and 392.545-392.60.

(5) The department shall adopt rules to specify the conditions and procedures for imposing and releasing a quarantine. The rules must include provisions related to:
(a) The closure of premises.
(b) The movement of persons or animals exposed to or infected with a communicable disease.
(c) The tests or treatment, including vaccination, for communicable disease required prior to employment or admission to the premises or to comply with a quarantine.
(d) Testing or destruction of animals with or suspected of having a disease transmissible to humans.
(e) Access by the department to quarantined premises.
(f) The disinfection of quarantined animals, persons, or premises.
(g) Methods of quarantine.

(6) The rules adopted under this section and actions taken by the department pursuant to a declared public health emergency or quarantine shall supersede all rules enacted by other state departments, boards or commissions, and ordinances and regulations enacted by political subdivisions of the state. Any person who violates any rule adopted under this section, any quarantine, or any requirement adopted by the department pursuant to a declared public health emergency, commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0300-0399/0381/Sections/0381.00315.html