What Emergency Declarations Can (and Can’t) Do in a Pandemic

The turn of the 21st century has brought a number of public health threats from emerging infectious diseases, such as SARS, MERS, Influenza H1N1, Ebola, and Zika. Emergency Public Health Powers US public health and disaster management authorities have unleashed a bevy of emergency powers at unprecedented levels since the inception of domestic cases of Covid-19. On January 31, one day after the World Health Organization issued a public health emergency of international concern, Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar declared a national public health emergency. According to the Network for Public Health Law as of today, 35 states have declared Covid-19 an emergency, disaster, or PHE, enveloping more than 248 million Americans. Some states’ emergency declarations confer paid sick and safe time benefits to individuals adhering to public health measures or require insurers to cover costs of Covid-19 tests.