January 23, 2017 The Fifth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review symposium featured leading experts discussing major developments during 2016 and what to watch out for in 2017. The discussion at this day-long event covered hot topics in such areas as health policy under the new administration, regulatory issues in clinical research, law at the end-of-life, patient rights and advocacy, pharmaceutical policy, reproductive health, and public health law. The Fifth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review was sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, Harvard Health Publications at Harvard Medical School, Health Affairs, the Hastings Center, the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund. Learn more on our website: http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/5th-annual-health-law-year-in-p-review

1. Zika:
Public Health (and Safety) Emergencies
George J. Annas
Professor & Director, Center for Health
Law, Ethics & Human Rights
Boston University Schools of
Public Health, Medicine, and Law

5. by George Annas, Sandro Galea and
Donald Thea
BOSTON GLOBE, Feb. 1, 2016
“Zika virus is not Ebola”

9. “A Gold Medal in Fear
Mongering”
Galea, Thea & Annas
HUFFINGTON POST, June 2, 2016

10. Major Human Rights Documents
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
• Geneva Conventions
• International Covenant Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR)
• International Covenant Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR)
• Convention and the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW)

12. • America First
• Seal the Borders

14. • A “public health
emergency of
international concern”
(art. 12)
• “extraordinary event…risk of
international spread of
disease…potentially
requiring an international
response.”
The sovereign right [of each
state to legislate and implement
health policies shall be
respected]

15. • H1N1
(2009)
• Polio (2014)
• Ebola
(2014)
• Zika (2016)

16. Public Health Emergency
Responses
1. Prevention remains primary goal
(a) can’t make prevention efforts worse off;
(b) can’t create ‘worse’ viruses/infectious agents.
2. Government has Primary Responsibility (therefore must
follow basic human rights law, esp. nondiscrimination; right to
health; women & children).
3. Must be Sustainable; should contribute to building a health
care system and infrastructure, not silos.
4. No emergency exceptions to informed consent for
research. (including gene drives)