Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Requiring Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination For School Entry, Michelle J. Bayefsky, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Over 40,000 Americans are diagnosed as having HPV-associated cancer each year, including oropharyngeal cancer for men and cervical cancer for women. These diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality and are largely preventable if people are vaccinated against HPV before they are exposed to the virus. Unfortunately, despite strong evidence of safety and effectiveness of the HPV vaccine, vaccination rates have been disappointingly low – much lower than for the varicella, measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis B. The disparity in vaccination rates stem mainly from the fact that HPV vaccination is not universally required for school entry, while the other childhood …

70 Years Of Human Rights In Global Health: Drawing On A Contentious Past To Secure A Hopeful Future, Lawrence O. Gostin, Benjamin Mason Meier, Rebekah Thomas, Veronica Magar, Tedros A. Ghebreyesus

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on Dec 10, 1948, established a modern human rights foundation that has become a cornerstone of global health, central to public health policies, programmes, and practices. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of this seminal declaration, we trace the evolution of human rights in global health, linking the past, present, and future of health as a human right. This future remains uncertain. As contemporary challenges imperil continuing advancements, threatening both human rights protections and global health governance, the future will depend, as it has in the past, on sustained political engagement to realise human …

Ebola And War In The Democratic Republic Of Congo: Avoiding Failure And Thinking Ahead, Lawrence O. Gostin, Matthew M. Kavanagh, Elizabeth Cameron

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is exceptionally dangerous, occurring within active armed conflict and geopolitical volatility, including a million displaced persons. With 421 cases, 240 deaths, and the numbers increasing, this Ebola outbreak is the second deadliest in history. Recent spread to Butembo, home to 1.2 million people, raised concerns. The DRC, World Health Organization (WHO), and partners are leading a vigorous international response, yet despite deploying an experimental vaccine, cases doubled in October 2018 and many cases had unknown origin.

Uncontrolled Ebola outbreaks can expand quickly, as occurred in West Africa in 2014. Averting …

Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Globalizing Risk, Localizing Threats, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Infectious diseases are a constant reality, yet it takes a shock to jolt the public’s attention and spur political action. The past weeks saw such as a shock at busy US airports, with the emergency quarantine of 3 flights. At the same time, seemingly a world away, insecurity, weak health systems, and distrust are fueling a second major Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this year. Yet reacting to periodic shocks won’t safeguard our collective future. Emergency preparedness requires proactive planning and funding, with US leadership pivotal.

Substantial Shifts In Supreme Court Health Law Jurisprudence, Lawrence O. Gostin, James G. Hodge

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

President Trump’s nomination of jurist Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court presents significant, potential changes on health law and policy issues. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kavanaugh’s approaches as a federal appellate court judge and scholar could literally shift the Court’s balance on consequential health policies. Judge Kavanaugh has disavowed broad discretion for federal agency authorities, cast significant doubts on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and narrowly interpreted reproductive rights (most notably abortion services). He has supported gun rights pursuant to the Second Amendment beyond U.S. Supreme Court recent interpretations. His varying positions related to consumer …

Health Data And Privacy In The Digital Era, Lawrence O. Gostin, Sam F. Halabi, Kumanan Wilson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 2010, the social networking site Facebook launched a platform allowing private companies to request users’ permission to access personal data. Few users were aware of the platform, which was integrated into Facebook’s terms of service. In 2014, Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based political consulting firm, developed a data-harvesting app. That app prompted Facebook users to provide psychological profiles, including responses such as “I get upset easily” and “I have frequent mood-swings” as part of a “research project.”

The Facebook platform allowed users to share their friends’ data as well, enabling Cambridge Analytica to access tens of millions of personal profiles, …

New Ebola Outbreak In Africa Is A Major Test For The Who, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On May 8, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a confirmed outbreak of Ebola in Bikoro, on the shores of Lake Tumba in Équateur Province. Ebola in the DRC is not unexpected. The first-ever identified Ebola outbreak occurred in the DRC—then Zaire—in 1976. This is the ninth of DRC’s outbreaks, which until now have been confined mainly to rural areas. With high fatality rates, earlier outbreaks quickly burned out due to the natural firewall of remoteness.

Bikoro and a nearby village, Ikoko-Impenge, are rural, but on May 16, the WHO confirmed spread to …

Missing: Where Are The Migrants In Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans?, Kolitha Wickramage, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, Phusit Prakongsai, Rapeepong Suphanchaimat, Charles Hui, Patrick Duigan, Eliana Barragan, David R. Harper

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Influenza pandemics are perennial global health security threats, with novel and seasonal influenza affecting a large proportion of the world’s population, causing enormous economic and social destruction. Novel viruses such as influenza A(H7N9) continue to emerge, posing zoonotic and potential pandemic threats. Many countries have developed pandemic influenza preparedness plans (PIPPs) aimed at guiding actions and investments to respond to such outbreak events.

Migrant and mobile population groups—such as migrant workers, cross-border frontier workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and other non-citizen categories residing within national boundaries—may be disproportionately affected in the event of health emergencies, with irregular/undocumented migrants experiencing even greater …

Banning Abortion In Cases Of Down Syndrome: Important Lessons For Advances In Genetic Diagnosis, Rebecca Reingold, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In December 2017, Ohio passed into law legislation that prohibited physicians from performing abortions if the pregnant woman’s decision was influenced by her belief that the fetus has Down syndrome. Physicians who perform abortions in these cases would face fourth-degree felony charges and revocation of their medical license. No other state bans abortion specifically for Down syndrome, but several ban abortions in cases of genetic diseases. Lower courts have struck down most such laws, holding they violate the constitutional rights of women. In February 2018, a federal district court judge blocked enforcement of Ohio’s law pending a final determination.

This …

Big Food And Soda Versus Public Health: Industry Litigation Against Local Government Regulations To Promote Healthy Diets, Sarah A. Roache, Charles Platkin, Lawrence O. Gostin, Cara Kaplan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Diets high in fats, sugars, and sodium are contributing to alarming levels of obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers throughout the United States. Sugary drinks, which include beverages that contain added caloric sweeteners such as flavored milks, fruit drinks, sports drinks, and sodas, are the largest source of added sugar in the American diet and an important causative factor for obesity and other diet-related diseases.

City and county governments have emerged as key innovators to promote healthier diets, adopting menu labeling laws to facilitate informed choices and soda taxes, warnings labels, and a soda portion cap to …

Legal Capacities Required For Prevention And Control Of Noncommunicable Diseases, Roger S. Magnusson, Benn Mcgrady, Lawrence O. Gostin, David Patterson, Hala Abou Taleb

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Law lies at the centre of successful national strategies for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. By law we mean international agreements, national and subnational legislation, regulations and other executive instruments, and decisions of courts and tribunals. However, the vital role of law in global health development is often poorly understood, and eclipsed by other disciplines such as medicine, public health and economics. This paper identifies key areas of intersection between law and noncommunicable diseases, beginning with the role of law as a tool for implementing policies for prevention and control of leading risk factors. We identify actions that the …

Reaching For Mediocrity: Competition And Stagnation In Pharmaceutical Innovation, Son Le, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Patents might incentivize invention but they do not guarantee firms will invest in projects that maximize social utility. We model how risk-neutral firms’ ability to obtain substantial private returns on marginal new technologies causes them to “reach for mediocrity” by investing in socially-suboptimal projects, even in the presence of competition and new entrants. Focusing primarily on pharmaceutical innovation, we analyze various policy interventions to solve this underinvestment problem. In particular, we describe a new approach to patents – a value based patent system, which ties patent protection to the underlying invention’s social value – and show how it incentivizes socially-optimal …