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Ethical Payment to Participants in Human Infection Challenge Studies, with a Focus on SARS-CoV-2 image

Ethical Payment to Participants in Human Infection Challenge Studies, with a Focus on SARS-CoV-2: Report and Recommendations

Holly Fernandez Lynch (Former Executive Director) et al.
SSRN

Complete author list: Holly Fernandez Lynch, Thomas Darton, Emily Largent, Jae Levy, Frank McCormick, Ubaka Ogbogu, Ruth Payne, Alvin E. Roth, Akilah Jefferson Shah, Thomas Smiley To prepare for potential…

Data and COVID-19 image

Data and COVID-19

June 2, 2020

Event Description John Snow famously used data to trace the source of a cholera outbreak, helping found the field of epidemiology. Data will play just as crucial a role in…

Indemnifying precaution image

Indemnifying precaution: economic insights for regulation of a highly infectious disease

Christopher T Robertson (Former Academic Fellow), K Aleks Schaefer, Daniel Scheitrum, Sergio Puig, Keith Joiner
Journal of Law and the Biosciences

Economic insights are powerful for understanding the challenge of managing a highly infectious disease, such as COVID-19, through behavioral precautions including social distancing. One problem is a form of moral…

Ethical Dilemmas in Mask and Equipment Shortages image

Ethical Dilemmas in Mask and Equipment Shortages: Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

April 22, 2020
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Online Viewing Fully captioned video of the panel discussion and panelists' slide presentations below! Join the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #PPEethics! Event Description Personal protective equipment or PPE has been…

‘Medical debt is a violation of human rights’ image

‘Medical debt is a violation of human rights’: At a Petrie-Flom event on medical debt, health experts and journalists raise serious concerns about the affordability of testing and hospital care

Chloe Reichel (Communications Associate)
Harvard Law Today

Medical debt “totally traumatizes people” and “discourages people from going anywhere near the health care system,” said Robert Yates, director of the Global Health Programme and…

Emergency statutes must be passed to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits, say Harvard Law professors image

Emergency statutes must be passed to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits, say Harvard Law professors

Jeff Neal
Harvard Law Today

State governments must enact emergency immunity statutes to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits and criminal prosecution during the COVID-19 pandemic, Harvard Law Professors I. Glenn Cohen ’03 and…

Protect the Doctors and Nurses Who Are Protecting Us image

Protect the Doctors and Nurses Who Are Protecting Us: They need immunity from lawsuits and prosecution for triage decisions.

I. Glenn Cohen, Andrew M. Crespo, and Douglas B. White
New York Times

[...] triage protocols are essential to ensuring that we make it through the impending crisis with the fewest possible deaths. But if these public-health strategies are to succeed, doctors must be…

Protecting rights in a global crisis image

Protecting rights in a global crisis: HLS scholars raise important legal and ethical questions about health care delivery and the enactment of extraordinary public health measures

Jonathan Chernoguz (Communications Intern)
Harvard Law Today

Fifty years from now, will emergency decisions made today to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic be remembered as reprehensible human rights violations, comparable to the internment of Japanese…

Securing Health, Justice, and Democracy against the COVID-19 Threat image

Securing Health, Justice, and Democracy against the COVID-19 Threat

Danielle Allen, Lucas Stanczyk, I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), Carmel Shachar (Executive Director), Rajiv Sethi, Glen Weyl, and Rosa Brooks
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University

Our federal government and all ofour state governments are now fully engaged in fighting a national emergency of historic proportions. The scale of the emergency is roughly equivalent to World…

Coronavirus: STAT News Coverage

STAT

STAT News has made all of their coverage of the new coronavirus free. You can sign up for STAT's Morning Rounds and Daily Recap newsletters to get an update…

Coronavirus Coverage: NPR

NPR

NPR's free coverage of the coronavirus spans topics including health news, politics, business, technology, and more.

The Coronavirus Outbreak: New York Times Coverage

New York Times

The New York Times is providing free access to much of its coronavirus outbreak coverage, including important news and useful guidance, to help readers understand the pandemic. Additional articles are…

COVID-19: Latest News On The Coronavirus Outbreak

Kaiser Health News

The latest in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, from free resource Kaiser Health News.

Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch on Twitter

Marc Lipsitch
Twitter

Check out Tweets from Marc Lipsitch, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, who curates…

Infectious Diseases Reporter Helen Branswell on Twitter

Helen Branswell
Twitter

Check out Tweets from STAT's infectious diseases and global health reporter Helen Branswell, who curates some of the best sources on COVID-19 news and science. Hear more from Helen…

Response to coronavirus could test limits of government powers image

Response to coronavirus could test limits of government powers

John Kruzel, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
The Hill

From the article: “In times of emergency — including public health emergency — the temptation to violate individual rights is at its greatest, and the courts have often been…

Lawmakers Reach Deal on $8.3 Billion Emergency Coronavirus Bill: The spending package dwarfs what the Trump administration requested to confront the virus.

Emily Cochrane
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Racing to confront a growing public health threat, key lawmakers in the House and Senate reached a deal on Wednesday to provide $8.3 billion in emergency aid to combat…

As Second U.S. Death Reported Out Of Washington Nursing Facility, Fears Mount For Vulnerable Elderly Population

Kaiser Health News

KHN Morning Briefing: Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations Authorities in the Seattle area reported four new cases Sunday night. Researchers say that it's likely the…

Avoiding Coronavirus May Be a Luxury Some Workers Can’t Afford: A sick day? Remote work? Not so easy if your job is at a restaurant, a day care center or a construction site.

Claire Cain Miller, Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz
New York Times

Stay home from work if you get sick. See a doctor. Use a separate bathroom from the people you live with. Prepare for schools to close, and to work from…

Kept at the Hospital on Coronavirus Fears, Now Facing Large Medical Bills: Care was mandated by the government, but it’s not clear who has to pay.

Sarah Kliff
New York Times

[...] Patients in the United States regularly confront surprise medical bills that are hard to decode. Mr. Wucinski’s case suggests that those held in mandatory isolation for suspected coronavirus…

Human Rights and Coronavirus image

Human Rights and Coronavirus: What’s at Stake for Truth, Trust, and Democracy?

Alicia Ely Yamin (Senior Fellow) and Roojin Habibi
Health and Human Rights Journal

[...] It has scarcely been a month since COVID-19 (then simply known as the disease caused by a novel ‘coronavirus’) was declared a “public health emergency of international…

Telehealth can help fight the novel coronavirus, but U.S. challenges could limit its potential

Erin Brodwin
STAT

As the world braces for the spread of disease caused by the new coronavirus, public health officials are calling on clinicians and health systems to embrace a set of tools…

Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S.: Getting ready for the possibility of major disruptions is not only smart; it’s also our civic duty

Zeynep Tufekci
Scientific American

[...] Preparing for the almost inevitable global spread of this virus, now dubbed COVID-19, is one of the most pro-social, altruistic things you can do in response to potential disruptions of…

The Coronavirus Goes Global: The illness is on every continent except Antarctica, with more new cases outside China than within. But how threatening is the outbreak really?

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, interviewing Donald G. McNeil Jr.
"The Daily," from the New York Times

What began as a public health crisis in China is well on the way to becoming a pandemic. And while there is a lot of news about the coronavirus, there…

Do not violate the International Health Regulations during the COVID-19 outbreak image

Do not violate the International Health Regulations during the COVID-19 outbreak

Coauthored by Alicia Ely Yamin (Senior Fellow)
The Lancet

The International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) govern how 196 countries and WHO collectively address the global spread of disease and avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade. Article 43 of this legally…

WHO Declares Coronavirus Outbreak A Global Emergency, But Reiterates Confidence In Chinese Officials

Kaiser Health News

KHN Morning Briefing: Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizationsWHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the declaration comes now because of fears that the coronavirus may reach countries…

Philadelphia hepatitis data exposure posed ‘no risk to confidentiality’ because of Inquirer notification, city says image

Philadelphia hepatitis data exposure posed ‘no risk to confidentiality’ because of Inquirer notification, city says

Nathaniel Lash, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Philadelphia Inquirer

From the article: The records in question were specific and intimate. One of the first few positive tests listed in the data set linked a woman’s name, race…

Some Big Health Care Policy Changes Are Hiding In The Federal Spending Package

NPR Staff
NPR

Congress is set to pass a $1.4 trillion spending package this week, which President Trump has said he'll sign. The legislation includes policy changes and funding increases that public health…

Samoa Arrests Anti-Vaccination Activist As Measles Death Toll Rises

Merrit Kennedy
NPR

Samoan authorities have arrested a prominent anti-vaccination activist amid an outbreak that has killed at least 63 people, most of them children. Edwin Tamasese has been charged with "incitement against a…

Government To Provide PrEP To Uninsured Americans To Further Its Goal Of Eradicating HIV Epidemic

Kaiser Health News

KHN Morning Briefing: Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations Some American cities with high HIV rates already have programs that pay the costs of PrEP for the…

Germany Mandates Measles Vaccine: All children attending preschool or higher in the country must be immunized, with fines for parents who do not comply, under a law that is to take effect next spring.

Melissa Eddy
New York Times

BERLIN — Parents in Germany must vaccinate their children against measles or face fines of several thousand euros under a law passed on Thursday that aims to stop the spread…

California To Make HIV Prevention Drugs Available Without A Prescription

Laurel Wamsley
NPR

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Monday that will make HIV-prevention drugs available without a prescription. It allows pharmacists to dispense both PrEP, or preexposure prophylaxis, and PEP,…

15+ Years of PEPFAR image

15+ Years of PEPFAR: How U.S. Action on HIV/AIDS Has Changed Global Health

October 7, 2019
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Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the speakers' slide presentations and blog posts! Description In May 2003, the U.S. Congress passed bipartisan legislation authorizing a…

Simulation and Deliberation to Prepare for Clinical Trials in Infectious Disease Emergencies: Digital Health @ Harvard Series

November 27, 2018
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Description Infectious disease emergencies are opportunities to test the efficacy of newly developed interventions (e.g. drugs, vaccines and treatment regimens), yet they raise many intertwined challenges of politics, logistics,…

Achieving Equitable Access to Vaccines: From Policies to Provisions

October 17, 2018

Description In order to achieve the objectives of global health organization policies those policies must be translated into actionable provisions and agreements. The Global Healthcare Innovation Alliance Accelerator endeavors to…

Ethical Investment in Global Public Health Security: A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium

October 12, 2018

Description Health emergencies around the world in recent years have included SARS, MERS, Ebola, and influenza. These epidemics have caused substantial mortality, destabilized governments, and served as significant risks to…

Preventing Epidemics in a Connected World: Part of Outbreak Week at Harvard University

September 28, 2018
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Description Led by the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI), Outbreak Week was a University-wide effort to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the globe. As…

Vaccines for Outbreaks in the Modern World: Part of Outbreak Week at Harvard University

September 27, 2018
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Description Led by HGHI, Outbreak Week was a University-wide effort to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the globe. Featuring keynotes from Michael Ryan, Deputy…

Media in the Age of Contagions: Part of Outbreak Week at Harvard University

September 26, 2018
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Description Led by HGHI, Outbreak Week was a University-wide effort to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the globe. At this symposium on "Media in…

HIV Criminalization: Creating a Viral Underclass in the Law

March 1, 2018
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Description HLS Lambda hosted this lecture on HIV stigma, criminalization, and activism. Sean Strub is a longtime HIV survivor, founder of POZ magazine, director of the Sero Project, and an…

The Conduct of Clinical Trials of Treatments during Public Health Emergencies: A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium

February 9, 2018
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Couldn't join us for the event? Check out the panelists' slide presentations below! Description In the past several years, the United States has struggled to respond to viral outbreaks,…

Punishing Disease: HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness

January 29, 2018
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Couldn't join us for the event? Check out the video of the event here! Please join us for a talk with Trevor Hoppe on his book, Punishing Disease: HIV…

Health Law Workshop: Aziza Ahmed

October 30, 2017

Presentation Topic: "'Dead But Not Disabled': A Feminist Legal Struggle for Recognition" This paper is not available for download. To request a copy in preparation for the workshop, please contact…

Health Law Workshop: Leo Beletsky

April 10, 2017

Presentation Download the presentation: "America’s Favorite Antidote: Murder-By-Overdose in the Age of the Opioid Epidemic" About the Presenter Leo Beletsky is Associate Professor of Law and Health Sciences…

Digital Health @ Harvard Brown Bag Lunch Series: Using Mobile Phone Data to Map Migration and Disease: Politics, Privacy, and Public Health

March 30, 2017

The Digital Health @ Harvard brown bag lunch series features speakers from Harvard as well as collaborators and colleagues from other institutions who research the intersection between health and digital technology.…

UPCOMING! Annual Health Law Conference: Between Complacency & Panic: Legal, Ethical and Policy Responses to Emerging Infectious Diseases

Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director)
Northeastern University School of Law

From the event: Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) such as Ebola and the Zika virus pose potentially grave threats to human health. They can also incite overreations that lead to the…

Digital Health @ Harvard Brown Bag Lunch Series: Public Health Echo Chambers in a Time of Mistrust and Misinformation

February 23, 2017

The Digital Health @ Harvard brown bag lunch series features speakers from Harvard as well as collaborators and colleagues from other institutions who research the intersection between health and digital technology.…

Vaccines and Airline Travel:: A Federal Role to Protect the Public Health

Christopher T. Robertson (Academic Fellow Alumnus)
42 American Journal of Law and Medicine 543

Abstract: This Article explores two ways in which airline travel is an important vector for the spread of infectious disease, and argues that airlines have market-based and liability-based reasons to…

The Summer Olympics And The Zika Virus — Is It Safe To Hold The Games In Brazil?

Jim Braude, interviewing Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch
Greater Boston (WGBH)

Olympic athletes going to Rio de Janeiro might come home with more than just a medal. Some public health officials are concerned about athletes, tourists and members of the media…

150 experts say Olympics must be moved or postponed because of Zika: Petrie-Flom Center Directors join bioethicists, scientists, and others in an open letter to WHO Director-General

Featuring I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) and Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director)
Washington Post

More than 100 prominent physicians, bioethicists and scientists from around the world posted a letter Friday urging WHO Director-General Margaret Chan to exert pressure on Olympic authorities to move the Olympics…

Prizing Insurance: Prescription Drug Insurance as Innovation Incentive,: New Article from Academic Fellow Rachel E. Sachs

Rachel E. Sachs
Harvard Journal of Law and Technology

Abstract: A problem perennially facing scholars of both intellectual property and health law is the need to incentivize appropriately the development of new pharmaceuticals. Although physicians have an arsenal of…

The National Security Implications of the Genetics Revolution

April 5, 2016
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Couldn't attend the event? Check out some of our speakers' slide presentations! Panelists Jamie Metzl, JD '97, Senior Fellow for Technology and National Security of the Atlantic Council. He has…

Negotiating for Health: The Role of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in Healthcare

February 27, 2016

Harvard Negotiation Law Review Presents its 21st Annual Symposium Agenda Overview Keynote Address: Dr. Leonard Marcus, Founding Director of the Program for Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the…

2015 Annual Conference: Law, Religion, and Health in America

May 8 - 9, 2015
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Join the conversation on Twitter! @PetrieFlom #lawreligionhealth And check out many of the speakers' slide presentations below! Conference Description Religion and medicine have historically gone hand in hand, but increasingly…

Identified Versus Statistical Lives - Book talk and discussion

Featuring co-editors I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), Nir Eyal, and Norman Daniels
Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Building 1, room 1208

The essays in Identified versus Statistical Lives: An Interdisciplinary Approach address the identified lives effect, namely, the greater human proclivity to assist persons and groups identified as at high risk…

Petrie-Flom Event Review: An opening for measles: Anti-vaccination trend a growing concern

Colleen Walsh
Harvard Gazette

[...] The recent California outbreak has reignited debates about balancing the public welfare while safeguarding civil liberties. A panel of experts convened atHarvard Law School on Wednesday to discuss the return…

Petrie-Flom Event Review:: Experts Talk Vaccine Opt-Out Parameters

Gabrielle M. Williams
Harvard Crimson

There is a delicate balance between preserving individual rights and protecting public health when it comes to vaccines, experts argued at a panel discussion at Harvard Law School on Wednesday. [...] …

Measles, Vaccines, and Protecting Public Health

February 25, 2015
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Couldn't join us? Watch the full event online! For more on this event, check out the write-ups in the Harvard Gazette (February 27, 2015) and the Harvard Crimson (February 26, 2015)! The measles…

Academic Fellow Rachel Sachs Guest Lecturing in Reading Group at Harvard Law School

Petrie-Flom Center

Petrie-Flom Academic Fellow Rachel E. Sachs will be a regular guest lecturer in a reading group at Harvard Law School, co-taught by with Professors Terry Fisher and Mark Wu in…

I. Glenn Cohen discusses the Ebola crisis

America's Forum, NewsMax TV

Harvard Law professor and medical ethics expert talks about how the Ebola crisis is just one example of how Americans and other travelers are at risk for deadly disease when…