Health Law and COVD-19

COVID-19 and the Law: Law and Policy to Address Basic Needs and Marginalized Populations is a colloquium series that will be hosted throughout Fall 2020 to bring together members of the Harvard Law School community to explore and assess, through discussions with various HLS experts, the legal responses to COVID-19 across areas of law ranging from laws governing health and health care, including drug development, public health, contact tracing and privacy; regulation of labor, safety, finance and debt, immigration; protection of basic human needs such as housing and food; and the scope and limitations of governmental powers operating in a pandemic. The series takes a particular focus on U.S. law and an emphasis on the urgent needs of marginalized populations, low-income and unemployed Americans, and people of color. Webinars will occur weekly on Wednesdays from 12-1pm EST/EDT and be available for live participation to all members of Harvard community. Videos of all sessions will also be recorded and posted to the webpage, which also includes resources and a blog: https://covidseries.law.harvard.edu/.

On September 16, our session on Health Law + COVID-19 will feature Glenn Cohen, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics; Robert Greenwald, Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation; and Peter Barton Hutt, former FDA Chief Counsel and leading Food and Drug Law scholar. We will explore a range of legal questions related to the U.S. health and public health response to COVID-19, including: testing, treatment, and vaccine development and approval; ethical and liability questions related to allocation of medical equipment; questions about disability and age discrimination in treatment and care; and questions of healthcare access and health equity, among others.