Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
-
- Georgetown University Law Center (56)
- Boston University School of Law (39)
- Maurer School of Law: Indiana University (18)
- Columbia Law School (10)
- American University Washington College of Law (8)
-
- University of Michigan Law School (8)
- Saint Louis University School of Law (7)
- University of Denver (5)
- University of Richmond (5)
- Vanderbilt University Law School (5)
- Fordham Law School (4)
- Pace University (4)
- Penn State Dickinson Law (4)
- Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University (4)
- University of Colorado Law School (4)
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (4)
- University of Pittsburgh School of Law (4)
- Case Western Reserve University School of Law (3)
- Emory University School of Law (3)
- SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah (3)
- University of New Hampshire (3)
- California Western School of Law (2)
- Singapore Management University (2)
- University of Missouri School of Law (2)
- University of Washington School of Law (2)
- Washington and Lee University School of Law (2)
- Aga Khan University (1)
- Cleveland State University (1)
- Cornell University Law School (1)
- Duke Law (1)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Faculty Scholarship (56)
- Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works (48)
- Articles by Maurer Faculty (18)
- Articles (14)
- All Faculty Scholarship (12)
-
- Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals (8)
- O'Neill Institute Papers (8)
- Law Faculty Publications (6)
- Faculty Publications (5)
- Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship (5)
- Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications (5)
- Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press (4)
- Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications (4)
- Faculty Scholarly Works (4)
- Faculty Articles (3)
- Law Faculty Scholarship (3)
- Publications (3)
- Utah Law Faculty Scholarship (3)
- Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law (2)
- Scholarly Articles (2)
- Akron Law Faculty Publications (1)
- Articles & Book Chapters (1)
- Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics (1)
- Community Health Sciences (1)
- Cornell Law Faculty Publications (1)
- Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters (1)
- Faculty Publications & Other Works (1)
- Faculty Works (1)
- Journal Articles (1)
- Law Faculty Articles and Essays (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 233
Full-Text Articles in Law
Public Health And Human Health Implications Of Climate Mobility, Julia Neusner, Ama Francis
Public Health And Human Health Implications Of Climate Mobility, Julia Neusner, Ama Francis
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Climate change poses significant challenges at the intersection of human and public health, mobility, and international law. Adverse climate impacts undermine the quality of human and public health, contributing to increasing global mobility, while climate-impacted migrants and displaced people can experience severe health challenges in transit and in their receiving communities. Moreover, the nexus between climate change, human and public health, and mobility exacerbates pre-existing vulnerabilities, undermining human rights and implicating State obligations. As international and regional courts, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), clarify states’ duty to protect people from the adverse impacts of climate change, it is …
Porter Et Al. V. Mccormack Et Al. - Warren Circuit Court (Sc 3717), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Porter Et Al. V. Mccormack Et Al. - Warren Circuit Court (Sc 3717), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Manuscript Collection Finding Aids
Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3717. Case file for L.R. Porter and Lizzie Porter v J. N. McCormack, John H. Blackburn, Henry James and Tom Potter (Warren County, Kentucky Circuit Court) relating to a restraining order secured by Luther R. Porter of Bowling Green to block the removal of his smallpox-infected daughter and the rest of the family to the local pest house. Includes affidavits of physicians, public health officials and locals familiar with the pest house. The restraining order was subsequently lifted by a Louisville judge. Also includes a 1902 Courier-Journal …
Employers And The Privatization Of Public Health, Sharona Hoffman
Employers And The Privatization Of Public Health, Sharona Hoffman
Faculty Publications
This Article focuses on the role of employers in public health and argues that they constitute increasingly important actors in the U.S. public health arena. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of judicial decisions and newly enacted statutes enfeebled the public health powers of the federal and state governments. In a 2023 statement, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch clearly articulated his antagonism towards government-initiated COVID-19 interventions, describing them as “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” All too many share his views.
Employers may be highly motivated to safeguard their workers’ …
A Bayesian Analysis Of E-Cigarette Risk Perceptions In The United Kingdom, W. Kip Viscusi
A Bayesian Analysis Of E-Cigarette Risk Perceptions In The United Kingdom, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Public Health England has communicated that e-cigarettes provide at least a 95% risk reduction compared to conventional cigarettes. This article's survey evidence indicates that adults in the United Kingdom believe that e-cigarettes are only 30%–40% safer overall and that they reduce lung cancer risks and total mortality risks by a similar percentage. A Bayesian analysis of risk beliefs finds that e-cigarette risk perceptions are anchored on prior cigarette risk beliefs. The public, especially smokers, underestimates the magnitude of the risk reduction being communicated by public health officials. Those who are aware of e-cigarette messages from Public Health England assess lower …
How Does The Us Media Frame Personal Experiences Of Termination Of Pregnancy, Christina Relacion
How Does The Us Media Frame Personal Experiences Of Termination Of Pregnancy, Christina Relacion
Student Works
Limited studies have examined the lived experience of those facing termination of pregnancy due to fetal anomaly in the U.S., particularly after the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. There exists a body of research elsewhere around the world studying how the media frames these experiences, but little is known about the role American media organizations play as health educators for critical reproductive healthcare topics, such as the termination of pregnancy. This critical analysis sought to understand how the U.S. media frames personal accounts of those who have experienced termination of pregnancy due to fetal anomaly, or …
Dobbs V. Jackson Women’S Health: Undermining Public Health, Facilitating Reproductive Coercion, Aziza Ahmed, Dabney P. Evans, Jason Jackson, Benjamin Mason Meier, Cecília Tomori
Dobbs V. Jackson Women’S Health: Undermining Public Health, Facilitating Reproductive Coercion, Aziza Ahmed, Dabney P. Evans, Jason Jackson, Benjamin Mason Meier, Cecília Tomori
Faculty Scholarship
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health continues a trajectory of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence that undermines the normative foundation of public health — the idea that the state is obligated to provide a robust set of supports for healthcare services and the underlying social determinants of health. Dobbs furthers a longstanding ideology of individual responsibility in public health, neglecting collective responsibility for better health outcomes. Such an ideology on individual responsibility not only enables a shrinking of public health infrastructure for reproductive health, it facilitates the rise of reproductive coercion and a criminal legal response to pregnancy and abortion. This commentary …
(Re)Criminalizing Abortion: Returning To The Political With Stories, George J. Annas
(Re)Criminalizing Abortion: Returning To The Political With Stories, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
Abortion stories have always played a powerful role in advancing women’s rights. In the abortion sphere particularly, the personal is political. Following the Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, abortion politics, and abortion storytelling, take on an even deeper political role in challenging the bloodless judicial language of Dobbs with the lived experience of women.
The Origins Of Covid-19 — Why It Matters (And Why It Doesn’T), Lawrence O. Gostin, Gigi K. Gronvall
The Origins Of Covid-19 — Why It Matters (And Why It Doesn’T), Lawrence O. Gostin, Gigi K. Gronvall
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
When Health emergencies arise, scientists seek to discover the cause — such as how a pathogen emerged and spread — because this knowledge can enhance our understanding of risks and strategies for prevention, preparedness, and mitigation. Yet well into the fourth year of the Covid-19 pandemic, intense political and scientific debates about its origins continue. The two major hypotheses are a natural zoonotic spillover, most likely occurring at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, and a laboratory leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). It is worth examining the efforts to discover the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the political obstacles, and …
Medical-Legal Partnership As A Model For Access To Justice, Yael Cannon
Medical-Legal Partnership As A Model For Access To Justice, Yael Cannon
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The United States is plagued with a “justice gap” that leaves many Americans with unmet civil legal needs. Americans with low income do not receive the legal help they require for as many as 92% of their substantive civil legal problems. The justice gap requires many legal aid agencies to triage, becoming “emergency rooms” for clients with unmet legal needs. This national crisis calls for new innovations so that access to justice (A2J) can function more like primary care, promoting better use of resources and preventing legal crises that can cause long-lasting harm.
Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) embed lawyers in healthcare …
The Global Health Architecture: Governance And International Institutions To Advance Population Health Worldwide, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, Alexandra Finch
The Global Health Architecture: Governance And International Institutions To Advance Population Health Worldwide, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, Alexandra Finch
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Policy Points Global health institutions and instruments should be reformed to fully incorporate the principles of good health governance: the right to health, equity, inclusive participation, transparency, accountability, and global solidarity. New legal instruments, like International Health Regulations amendments and the pandemic treaty, should be grounded in these principles of sound governance. Equity should be embedded into the prevention of, preparedness for, response to, and recovery from catastrophic health threats, within and across nations and sectors. This includes the extant model of charitable contributions for access to medical resources giving way to a new model that empowers low- and middle-income …
Public Health Law’S Digital Frontier: Addictive Design, Section 230, And The Freedom Of Speech, Matthew B. Lawrence
Public Health Law’S Digital Frontier: Addictive Design, Section 230, And The Freedom Of Speech, Matthew B. Lawrence
Faculty Articles
This Article argues that, even if courts are unpersuaded by the broadest arguments in favor of a public health approach to regulation of addictive design, they should nonetheless reject the platforms’ efforts to make addictive design a public-health-law-free zone. The public health and internet paradigms can be reconciled as a policy matter because addictive design threatens both public health and innovation online. The public health and internet paradigms can also be reconciled as a legal matter be-cause even strong theories of section 230 and the First Amendment, properly understood, leave states a safe harbor in which to regulate much addictive …
The Psychology Of Science Denialism And Lessons For Public Health Authorities, Brenna Moreno, Molly J. Walker Wilson
The Psychology Of Science Denialism And Lessons For Public Health Authorities, Brenna Moreno, Molly J. Walker Wilson
All Faculty Scholarship
As it wreaked tragedy on the world, the outbreak of COVID-19 helped expose a pandemic of a different kind, one steeped in distrust and contrarianism. This movement, termed science denialism, has been lurking and undermining public health efforts for decades. Specifically, it is “the employment of rhetorical arguments to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none, an approach that has the ultimate goal of rejecting a proposition on which a scientific consensus exists.” Unlike skepticism, which is “doubt as to the truth of something” and works to progress both science and society, denialism is characterized by individuals’ …
Fair Domestic Allocation Of Monkeypox Virus Countermeasures, Govind C. Persad, R. J. Leland, Trygve Ottersen, Henry S. Richardson, Carla Saenz, G. Owen Schaefer, Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Fair Domestic Allocation Of Monkeypox Virus Countermeasures, Govind C. Persad, R. J. Leland, Trygve Ottersen, Henry S. Richardson, Carla Saenz, G. Owen Schaefer, Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Countermeasures for mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), primarily vaccines, have been in limited supply in many countries during outbreaks. Equitable allocation of scarce resources during public health emergencies is a complex challenge. Identifying the objectives and core values for the allocation of mpox countermeasures, using those values to provide guidance for priority groups and prioritisation tiers, and optimising allocation implementation are important. The fundamental values for the allocation of mpox countermeasures are: preventing death and illness; reducing the association between death or illness and unjust disparities; prioritising those who prevent harm or mitigate disparities; recognising contributions to combating an outbreak; …
Reserve System Design For Allocation Of Scarce Medical Resources In A Pandemic: Some Perspectives From The Field, Parag A. Pathak, Govind C. Persad, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Unver
Reserve System Design For Allocation Of Scarce Medical Resources In A Pandemic: Some Perspectives From The Field, Parag A. Pathak, Govind C. Persad, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Unver
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Worker Participation In A Time Of Covid: A Case Study Of Occupational Health And Safety Regulation In Ontario, Alan Hall, Eric Tucker
Worker Participation In A Time Of Covid: A Case Study Of Occupational Health And Safety Regulation In Ontario, Alan Hall, Eric Tucker
Articles & Book Chapters
This study examines worker voice in the development and implementation of safety plans or protocols for covid-19 prevention among hospital workers, long-term care workers, and education workers in the Canadian province of Ontario. Although Ontario occupational health and safety law and official public health policy appear to recognize the need for active consultation with workers and labour unions, there were limited – and in some cases no – efforts by employers to meaningfully involve workers, worker representatives (reps), or union officials in assessing covid-19 risks and planning protection and prevention measures. The political and legal efforts of workers and unions …
A Multicenter Weighted Lottery To Equitably Allocate Scarce Covid-19 Therapeutics, Douglas B. White, Erin K. Mccreary, Chung-Chou H. Chang, Mark Schmidhoffer, J. Ryan Bariola, Naudia N. Jonassaint, Govind C. Persad, Robert D. Truog, Parag A. Pathak, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Unver
A Multicenter Weighted Lottery To Equitably Allocate Scarce Covid-19 Therapeutics, Douglas B. White, Erin K. Mccreary, Chung-Chou H. Chang, Mark Schmidhoffer, J. Ryan Bariola, Naudia N. Jonassaint, Govind C. Persad, Robert D. Truog, Parag A. Pathak, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Unver
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Shortages of new therapeutics to treat coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have forced clinicians, public health officials, and health systems to grapple with difficult questions about how to fairly allocate potentially life-saving treatments when there are not enough for all patients in need. Shortages have occurred with remdesivir, tocilizumab, monoclonal antibodies, and the oralantiviral Paxlovid.
Ensuring equitable allocation is especially important in light of the disproportionate burden experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic by disadvantaged groups, including Black, Hispanic/Latino and Indigenous communities, individuals with certain disabilities, and low-income persons. However, many health systems have resorted to first-come, first-served approaches to allocation, which tend …
Data Privacy In The Time Of Plague, Cason Schmit, Brian N. Larson, Hye-Chung Kum
Data Privacy In The Time Of Plague, Cason Schmit, Brian N. Larson, Hye-Chung Kum
Faculty Scholarship
Data privacy is a life-or-death matter for public health. Beginning in late fall 2019, two series of events unfolded, one everyone talked about and one hardly anyone noticed: The greatest world-health crisis in at least 100 years, the COVID-19 pandemic; and the development of the Personal Data Protection Act Committee by the Uniform Law Commissioners (ULC) in the United States. By July 2021, each of these stories had reached a turning point. In the developed, Western world, most people who wanted to receive the vaccine against COVID- 19 could do so. Meanwhile, the ULC adopted the Uniform Personal Data Protection …
American Public Health Federalism And The Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicole Huberfeld, Sarah Gordon, David K. Jones
American Public Health Federalism And The Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicole Huberfeld, Sarah Gordon, David K. Jones
Faculty Scholarship
This chapter is part of an edited volume studying and comparing federalist government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter first briefly provides an overview of the American public health emergency framework and highlights key leadership challenges that occurred at federal and state levels throughout the first year of the pandemic. Then the chapter examines decentralized responsibility in American social programs and states’ prior policy choices to understand how long-term choices affected short-term emergency response. Finally, the chapter explores long-term ramifications and solutions to the governance difficulties the pandemic has highlighted.
The Public/Private Distinction In Public Health: The Case Of Covid-19, Aziza Ahmed, Jason Jackson
The Public/Private Distinction In Public Health: The Case Of Covid-19, Aziza Ahmed, Jason Jackson
Faculty Scholarship
In this Essay, we argue that the paradigm of the public/private distinction is implicitly operating as a primary frame in the public health response to the pandemic. The public/private distinction is particularly evident in the guidance around masking and other risk-mitigation policies and advice issued by public health agencies. This public health approach reifies the notion of the home as an exceptional private space that exists outside of the possibility of COVID-19 transmission, obscuring the reality of the high risk of transmission in some households. 8 We argue that the manifestation of the public/private distinction in the COVID-19 response is …
Where Is The “Public” In American Public Health? Moving From Individual Responsibility To Collective Action, Cecília Tomori, Dabney P. Evans, Aziza Ahmed, Aparna Nair, Benjamin Mason Meier
Where Is The “Public” In American Public Health? Moving From Individual Responsibility To Collective Action, Cecília Tomori, Dabney P. Evans, Aziza Ahmed, Aparna Nair, Benjamin Mason Meier
Faculty Scholarship
American individualism continues to prove incommensurate to the public health challenge of COVID-19. Where the previous US Administration silenced public health science, neglected rising inequalities, and undermined global solidarity in the early pandemic response, the Biden Administration has sought to take action to respond to the ongoing pandemic. However, the Administration's overwhelming focus on individual responsibility over population-level policy stands in sharp contrast to fundamental tenets of public health that emphasize “what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy”. When this misalignment of individual responsibility and public health initially became clear with …
Securing A Permanent Homeland: The Federal Government’S Responsibility To Provide Clean Water Access To Tribal Communities, Heather Tanana
Securing A Permanent Homeland: The Federal Government’S Responsibility To Provide Clean Water Access To Tribal Communities, Heather Tanana
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
Water is life—critical to the health, socioeconomic, and cultural needs of any community. Every household in the United States needs and deserves access to clean, reliable, and a ordable drinking water. Yet, tribal communities face high rates of water insecurity. More than a half million people—nearly 48 percent of tribal homes in Native communities across the United States—do not have access to reliable water sources, clean drinking water, or basic sanitation. In comparison, as a whole, less than 1 percent of households in the United States lack these facilities. This persistent problem became a matter of life or death during …
Risk Tradeoffs And Equitable Decision-Making In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lawrence O. Gostin, Sarah A. Wetter
Risk Tradeoffs And Equitable Decision-Making In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lawrence O. Gostin, Sarah A. Wetter
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, societies have faced agonizing decisions about whether to close schools, shutter businesses, delay nonemergency health care, restrict travel, and authorize the use of emergency Covid-19 countermeasures under limited scientific understanding. Measures to control the spread of COVID-19 have disrupted our health, educational, and economic systems, tarnished our mental health, and took away our cherished time with family and friends. Conflicting advice from health agencies on the utility of public health measures left us wondering, was it all worth it? We still do not have all the answers to guide us through difficult risk-risk …
Pandemic Federalism, Cary Coglianese
Pandemic Federalism, Cary Coglianese
All Faculty Scholarship
Legislators, agency officials, and the public have a lot to learn from the United States’ experience in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. If policymakers take seriously their responsibility to identify past mistakes, and then act now to prepare for future viral outbreaks, the nation can do better in the next crisis. One needed change will take the form of clarifying the essential role for the national government and its leadership in responding to pandemics. The United States needs to create a structure for a pandemic federalism that temporarily but responsively allows for a reconfiguration of public health authority, such that …
The Legal Role In Building Sustainable Public Health (Symposium Transcript), Joanna K. Sax
The Legal Role In Building Sustainable Public Health (Symposium Transcript), Joanna K. Sax
Faculty Scholarship
The article presents a discussion of food as a public health issue, beginning with why science matters and utilizing science to solve food as a public health issue, especially as it relates to sustainability and climate change. Consumer misperceptions of the risk created by new scientific technologies (e.g., GMOs), or even older scientific technologies, may thwart use of such technologies to solve sustainability problems. The talk addresses why consumers might inappropriately assign risk to certain scientific applications and ways that we might want to think about resolving that issue or closing the divide between consumer misperception of risk and evidence-based …
Title 42, Asylum, And Politicising Public Health, Michael Ulrich, Sondra S. Crosby
Title 42, Asylum, And Politicising Public Health, Michael Ulrich, Sondra S. Crosby
Faculty Scholarship
President Biden has continued the controversial immigration policy of the Trump era known as Title 42, which has caused harm and suffering to scores of asylum seekers under the guise of public health.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered the policy in March 2020 with the stated purpose of limiting the spread of the coronavirus into the U.S.; though, CDC and public health officials have admitted this policy has no scientific basis and there is no evidence it has protected the public.2,3 Instead, the impetus behind the policy appears to be a desire to keep out or …
The Perceived Risks Of E-Cigarettes To Others And During Pregnancy, W. Kip Viscusi
The Perceived Risks Of E-Cigarettes To Others And During Pregnancy, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Background
Public Health England has concluded that e-cigarettes are much safer than cigarettes for the user and for secondhand exposures, but it has not reached a definitive conclusion regarding pregnancy risks. How people perceive the risks to others is less well understood.
Methods
This study uses an online UK sample of 1041 adults to examine perceived e-cigarette risks to others and during pregnancy. The survey examines relative risk beliefs of e-cigarettes compared to cigarettes and the percentage reduction in harm provided by e-cigarettes.
Results
A majority of the sample believes that secondhand exposure to e-cigarette vapors poses less risk than …
Effects Of Political Versus Expert Messaging On Vaccination Intentions Of Trump Voters, Christopher Robertson, Keith Bentele, Beth Meyerson, Alexander Wood, Jacqueline Salwa
Effects Of Political Versus Expert Messaging On Vaccination Intentions Of Trump Voters, Christopher Robertson, Keith Bentele, Beth Meyerson, Alexander Wood, Jacqueline Salwa
Faculty Scholarship
To increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake in resistant populations, such as Republicans, focus groups suggest that it is best to de-politicize the issue by sharing five facts from a public health expert. Yet polls suggest that Trump voters trust former President Donald Trump for medical advice more than they trust experts. We conducted an online, randomized, national experiment among 387 non-vaccinated Trump voters, using two brief audiovisual artifacts from Spring 2021, either facts delivered by an expert versus political claims delivered by President Trump. Relative to the control group, Trump voters who viewed the video of Trump endorsing the vaccine were …
Your Health Is In Your Hands? Us Cdc Covid-19 Mask Guidance Reveals The Moral Foundations Of Public Health, Cecília Tomori, Aziza Ahmed, Dabney P. Evans, Benjamin Mason Meier, Aparna Nair
Your Health Is In Your Hands? Us Cdc Covid-19 Mask Guidance Reveals The Moral Foundations Of Public Health, Cecília Tomori, Aziza Ahmed, Dabney P. Evans, Benjamin Mason Meier, Aparna Nair
Faculty Scholarship
In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, US public health policy remains at a crossroads. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) May 28, 2021 guidance, which lifted masking recommendations for vaccinated people in most situations, exemplifies a troubling shift — away from public health objectives that center equity and toward a model of individual personal responsibility for health. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky emphasized that "your health is in your hands," undermining the idea that fighting COVID is a "public" health responsibility that requires the support of institutions and communities. The social impacts of this scientific guidance, …
Designing An Independent Public Health Agency, Jacqueline Salwa, Christopher Robertson
Designing An Independent Public Health Agency, Jacqueline Salwa, Christopher Robertson
Faculty Scholarship
We believe that Congress should act on a bipartisan basis to fix U.S. public health institutions. Legislators could decide to merely buttress current institutions, as former commissioners have suggested be done for the FDA.1 Alternatively, legislators could consider a broad reorganization of public health functions and create a superagency, whose purview would include everything from the approval of drugs and devices to the maintenance of national stockpiles of protective equipment.