Isolated By The Law, Part 2: Asynchronous symposium

In February 2018, the Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy sponsored its spring symposium, Isolated by the Law: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Quarantine in Public Health Emergencies. This symposium brought together top legal scholars and public experts to discuss federal and state quarantine policy following the SARS and Ebola epidemics.  The symposium also focused on more recent policy shifts with respect to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s long-standing global health.  The symposium, while providing a retrospective examination of quarantine policy, was also forward thinking in discussing lessons learned and ideas to be implemented should a wide-spread quarantine be necessary in the future.

This virtual symposium will examine the critical balance between public health interests and individual rights presented by this COVID-19 pandemic, along with issues such as how vulnerable populations are adversely affected, due process concerns, preemption, critical standard of care, allocation of scarce resources, such as ventilators, and medication, along with the many public policy concerns involved, including but not limited to, the strong link between economic security and compliance, the FDA’s role in promoting safe and effective treatments and vaccines, and providing emergency use authorization and expanded access for investigational drugs. The symposium will focus both on global and domestic public health policy and also provide advice for lifting current social and economic restrictions.

The symposium will be asynchronous, and all presentations will be accessible in tone and content for all members of the Wake Forest community, along with a broader public audience.