Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health<\/em>, the group also says, \u201cConstitutional challenges under the religious freedom clause under the First Amendment and under the substantive due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment have failed, when the individual interests are not strong enough to outweigh the public benefit.\u201d<\/p>\nThe 84-page report\u2014covering topics ranging from the call to adopt uniform standards for allocation of personal protective equipment and ventilators when resources are scarce, to \u201caction steps\u201d to help fight against health-care system inequities affecting the nation\u2019s poorest and most \u201cvulnerable populations\u201d\u2014was produced by a 13-member task force appointed by the Health Law Section. On June 13, a governing body of the bar association will vote on whether, as a full organization, to adopt the task force and health group\u2019s recommendations, including\u00a0 the stance on COVID-19 vaccinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the [COVID-19] crisis began to unfold,\u201d says the report, bar association president Hank Greenberg asked the section to prepare a report on COVID-19-related legal issues. The task force, staffed by all lawyers and led by Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey\u2014an attorney who also holds a master\u2019s degree in public health and a PhD in gerontological social work research, according to her LinkedIn page\u2014met twice weekly from March 13 to April 24. The group consulted with medicine and bioethics experts \u201con issues of concern,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
In its section on legal and ethical issues surrounding the potential controversy over which Americans should be vaccinated for COVID-19, assuming a workable vaccine is developed, the health group, citing state case law, wrote that New York\u2019s courts \u201chave found that religious, personal or \u2018unsupported \u2026 medical literature\u2019\u201d are not persuasive.<\/p>\n
The report also said that \u201chealthcare workers and parents of unvaccinated children have unsuccessfully challenged compulsory vaccination on administrative law grounds\u2014questioning the NYS [New York State] and NYC Department of Health\u2019s authority in mandating flu and measles vaccinations, as well as challenging the regulations as arbitrary and capricious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe courts found the policies mandating that healthcare workers be vaccinated for influenza, and children vaccinated for measles during an outbreak, were not arbitrary and capricious and the regulations were promulgated under proper authority,\u201d says the report. It also notes that \u201con June 13, 2019, the religious exemption for vaccinating school-attending children was repealed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report states, \u201cThe gravity of COVID-19 presents compelling justification for State legislatures and Congress to mandate a COVID-19 vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an \u201cExecutive Summary\u201d section, the report notes that \u201cover 22,000 New Yorkers have lost their lives to date, based upon New York State Department of Health data, \u2026 reported through the period ending May 13, 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n
It adds that \u201cin addressing the legal and ethical issues confronted by the health system, we must not forget the human face of COVID-19, the persons, families and communities affected by the pandemic, and the unspeakable assaults on the fabric of human life\u2014loved ones dying alone in sterile hospital rooms, unemployment and food insecurity, the loss of sociality, and depths of bereavement and despair unknown in generations, at least in the western world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report is dedicated, it says, to \u201cNew York\u2019s health care workers and workers in service jobs on the front lines of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
___
\nhttps:\/\/www.law.com\/newyorklawjournal\/2020\/05\/28\/state-bar-calls-for-mandatory-covid-19-vaccinations-regardless-of-objections\/?slreturn=20200502111241#<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Bar Group Calls for ‘Mandatory’ COVID-19 Vaccinations, Regardless of Objections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}