Reference no: EM133291625

Case: You are a health policy advisor for the American Public Health Association (APHA) and are part of a team conducting a post-pandemic evaluation of several critical issues that arose during COVID-19. Your team has already examined the constitutionality of mask mandates in indoor public settings. Now, the team is ready to review additional public health strategies that federal, state and local governments in the U.S. used to control the spread of COVID-19.

To help frame the review, your team is reviewing the actions of one of the most populous states in the U.S. where outbreak levels of COVID-19 were high, especially before the COVID-19 vaccine became widely available. For purposes of this exercise, the team is referring to this state as State X.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, State X tried several strategies to help control the spread of COVID-19. In addition to mask mandates, State X used its authority under its existing public health laws to do the following:

Question 1: Require all stores within the state selling cloth masks of any type to post a sign by the masks stating "Cloth masks are not as effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 as surgical or N-95 masks. Use at your own risk." State X decided it was important to post these warnings after an increasing number of studies showed that cloth masks were less effective at filtering COVID-19 virus particles than surgical or N-95 masks.

Question 2: Require that all public schools within the state take students' temperatures each day at the entrance to the school building. Parent/guardian consent was not required. Students with a fever were sent home.

Question 3: Require all children who attend public school within the state to be vaccinated for COVID-19 unless they had received a medical exemption from a licensed physician. No religious exemptions were permitted under state law. Students who had a medical exemption were required to undergo weekly COVID-19 rapid antigen tests in the school nurse's office.

Question 4: In accordance with accepted medical and CDC guidelines, State X required any state resident who tested positive for COVID-19 to isolate in their homes/residences for 10 days from the date of symptom onset or positive test, whichever was first. All close contacts of the positive person were required to quarantine in their homes/residences for 14 days from the date of last contact.

Most local health departments in State X enforced isolation and quarantine by issuing written legal orders to each COVID-positive person and their close contacts, followed by daily in-person visits, calls, and/or texts to ensure the person was complying with the order and to determine the need for any assistance, such as medical care or food. In County Y, individuals found to be violating a quarantine order were issued a warning for a first offense, a fine for a second offense, and arrested and taken to the County jail for a third offense. Except in cases of emergency, these individuals were held in jail until their quarantine period ended. The County made state and local news when some residents told reporters that the vast majority of people arrested and in jail for violating quarantine orders did not speak English and had no access to an interpreter.

You have been asked to write a memo on the legality of these public health strategies, detailing the primary legal considerations surrounding each. You do not need to address mask mandates again. Your team wants to know what specific issues a court (and jury) would be evaluating under each scenario, and the rule(s) the court would use to evaluate the constitutionality of the government's action under each scenario. Please discuss, using relevant cases from weeks 5-7 (and if relevant, from weeks 1-4) to support your answers.