Law Commons^™

Catch And Contain Novel Pathogens Early!—Assessing U.S. Medical Isolation Laws As Applied To A Future Pandemic Detection And Prevention Model, April Xiaoyi Xu

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

As of July 2, 2021, there have been 196,553,009 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), including 4,200,412 deaths, globally. Unfortunately, infectious diseases have been an “unavoidable fact of life” throughout history. While the global community looks forward to a gradual return to normalcy from COVID-19 with an increasing number of individuals getting vaccinated on a daily basis, the COVID-19 public health crisis has exposed significant inadequacies in many countries’ pandemic responses—the United States included. Governing authorities must actively consider more effective solutions to quickly detect and prevent the spread of future pandemics.

One proposed model that offers promising potential, …

Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: Let The Science Decide, Sabrina K. Glavota

Michigan Technology Law Review

Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) is an in vitro fertilization technique designed to prevent women who are carriers of mitochondrial diseases from passing on these heritable genetic diseases to their children. It is an innovative assisted reproductive technology that is only legal in a small number of countries. The United States has essentially stagnated all opportunities for research and clinical trials on MRT through a rider in H.R.2029 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016. The rider bans clinical trials on all therapies in which a human embryo is intentionally altered to include a heritable genetic modification. This note argues that the rider …

Workers' Comp And Contagious Disease: History And Future, Kate E. Britt

Law Librarian Scholarship

Modern workers’ compensation schemes set out to provide financial relief to employees who contract an occupational disease during employment, like miners contracting black lung or contractors exposed to asbestos. Certain professions are understood to stand a particular risk of exposure to contagious diseases. Health-care workers interact with persons carrying contagious disease as a matter of course. What workers’ compensation does not cover are diseases which are so prevalent they are considered an “ordinary disease of life.” These diseases, like the common cold, influenza, or pneumonia, could be contracted by persons regardless of their profession, and workers’ compensation acts generally limit …

Taxes As Pandemic Controls, Ashley C. Craig, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

Tax policy can play important roles in limiting the spread of communicable disease and in managing the economic fallout of a pandemic. Taxes on business activities that bring workers or customers into close contact with each other offer efficient alternatives to broad regulatory measures, such as shutdowns, that have been effective but enormously costly. Corrective taxation also helps raise the revenue required to cover elevated government expenditure during a pandemic. Moreover, the restricted consumer choice that accompanies a pandemic reduces the welfare cost of raising tax revenue from higher-income taxpayers, making it a good time for deficit closure. Current U.S. …

The Intellectual Property Of Vaccines: Takeaways From Recent Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Ana Santos Rutschman

Michigan Law Review Online

In late 2019 and early 2020, a new strain of coronavirus, a family of pathogens causing serious respiratory illness, began infecting populations across the globe. A quick uptick in COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel pathogen, prompted the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020. By mid-February 2020, with 26 countries reporting cases of COVID-19 infection, the global case count had surpassed 50,000, and had resulted in over 1,500 deaths. The World Health Organization elevated the status of the outbreak to a pandemic in mid-March. As of early …

The Affordable Care Act, Experience Rating, And The Problem Of Non-Vaccination, Eric Esshaki

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Polio, the whooping cough, and the mumps, among many other communicable diseases, were once prevalent in communities within the developed world and killed millions of people.1 The advent of vaccinations contained or eradicated several of these diseases.2 However, these diseases still exist in the environment3 and are making a comeback in the United States.4 Their persistence is directly attributable to the rising trend among parents refusing to vaccinate their children.5 One proposed solution to this problem is to hold parents liable in tort when others are harmed by their failure to vaccinate. Another proposed solution argues that parents should pay …

Off-Label Promotion Reform: A Legislative Proposal Addressing Vulnerable Patient Drug Access And Limiting Inappropriate Pharmaceutical Marketing, Tim Mackey, Bryan A. Liang

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Off-label promotion occurs when pharmaceutical manufacturers engage in promotion of unapproved or "off-label" uses of their drugs. These off label uses may lack adequate clinical data to substantiate marketing claims, have led to corporate investigations and penalties, and can endanger public health. However there is adequate evidence to suggest that off-label uses are entirely appropriate for some vulnerable patient populations, and that physicians have accepted such uses as standard. Historically, U.S. law has prohibited direct off-label promotion to physicians and patients. However, failed government guidance, industry-based litigation, and the diminished capacity of regulators to police illegal practices have had dire …

Litigating Against An Epidemic: Hiv/Aids And The Promise Of Socioeconomic Rights In South Africa, Nathaniel Bruhn

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

With one of the highest incidence rates in the world, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has taken a large toll on South Africa. Despite medical advances that have made the disease more manageable, many South Africans still do not have access to the medicines needed to control the disease. At the same time, the Constitution of South Africa grants individuals far-reaching socioeconomic rights, including the right to access health care. This Comment explores the intersection of the socioeconomic rights and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Although the Constitutional Court has developed a deferential approach to enforcing socioeconomic rights, substantial room remains to litigate on …

Vanishing Vaccinations: Why Are So Many Americans Opting Out Of Vaccinating Their Children?, Steve P. Calandrillo

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Vaccinations against life-threatening diseases are one of the greatest public health achievements in history. Literally millions of premature deaths have been prevented, and countless more children have been saved from disfiguring illness. While vaccinations carry unavoidable risks, the medical, social and economic benefits they confer have led all fifty states to enact compulsory childhood vaccination laws to stop the spread of preventable diseases. Today, however, vaccines are becoming a victim of their success-many individuals have never witnessed the debilitating diseases that vaccines protect against, allowing complacency toward immunization requirements to build. Antivaccination sentiment is growing fast in the United States, …

Regulating Viatical Settlements: Is The Invisible Hand Picking The Pockets Of The Terminally Ill?, Russell J. Herron

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The newly emerging viatical settlement industry has attracted considerable attention from both insurance regulators and advocates for the terminally ill. In a viatical settlement, a terminally ill person names a viatical settlement company as beneficiary under his life insurance policy in exchange for an immediate lump-sum cash payment of less than face value of the policy. To date, viatical settlement payments to people with AIDS (PWAs) have been disturbingly low as a percentage of the face value of PWA policies. This Note examines the few enacted viatical settlement regulations and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' model regulations as they …

Calming Aids Phobia: Legal Implications Of The Low Risk Of Transmitting Hiv In The Health Care Setting, American Bar Association Aids Coordinating Committee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Scientists are concluding that the risk of becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS based on transmission from an infected health care worker is infinitesimal: in fact, only one health care worker has ever been documented as the source of HN transmission to a patient. This Article sets forth the medical evidence concerning this low risk and argues that legal decision making should incorporate these facts into its analysis of legal problems involving HN-infected health care workers. The Article analyzes three areas of such legal decision making: (1) employment and related credentialing of HN-infected health care workers; (2) liability …

Aids And Government: A Plan Of Action?, Taunya Lovell Banks

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Report of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic by Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office

A Need For Caring, Judith Areen

Michigan Law Review

A Review of AIDS and the Law: A Guide for the Public edited by Harlon L. Dalton, Scott Burris and the Yale AIDS Law Project

Deducting The Cost Of Smoking Cessation Programs Under Internal Revenue Code Section 213, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that enrollment fees for a smoking cessation program should be classified as deductible medical expenses. Part I defends this conclusion without questioning the accepted interpretation of section 213(e). Recent medical evidence indicates that the nicotine addiction that cessation program patients seek to break is itself a disease. And even prior to the onset of more serious health consequences, sustained cigarette smoking significantly impairs the functioning of the lungs and heart. Under this analysis, enrollment fees should be deductible as expenses for the treatment of an existing disease or defect, and as "amounts paid . . . for …

The Politics Of Cancer, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Politics of Cancer by Samuel S. Epstein