Public Health Law Research, Temple University Beasley Schoolof Law, Rm 408, 1719 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2009 Dec;3 Suppl 2:S176-84. doi: 10.1097/DMP.0b013e3181be6e92.
Legal preparedness is an essential component of effective public health emergency response, evinced recently by the numerous emergency declarations issued at the federal, state, and local levels to address the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak. Although the impact of these emergency laws at the federal and state levels has been studied extensively, the scope and role of local emergency laws have not been similarly assessed. In this article, we examine key issues of emergency laws among select US localities in the context of the recent H1N1 outbreak and their application to volunteer health professionals, who are often needed to meet patient surge capacity during local emergencies.Localities represent the front line of emergency preparedness and must address an array of legal challenges before and during declared emergencies. Local legal preparedness differs based on overarching restrictions such as the degree of home rule provided to localities under state law. Some localities take innovative legal approaches to address emergency preparedness. Although beneficial in many respects, these variations add additional complexity to legal preparedness and intensify the need for predisaster planning, exercises, and coordination.
法律准备是有效应对公共卫生突发事件的重要组成部分，最近联邦、州和地方各级发布的多项紧急声明就是为了应对 2009 年 H1N1 流感爆发。尽管这些联邦和州紧急法律的影响已经得到了广泛研究，但地方紧急法律的范围和作用尚未得到类似评估。在本文中，我们研究了最近 H1N1 爆发背景下美国部分地区紧急法律的关键问题及其对志愿卫生专业人员的适用，这些人员通常是在地方紧急情况下满足患者激增需求所必需的。地方政府是应急准备的第一线，在宣布紧急状态之前和期间必须应对一系列法律挑战。地方政府的法律准备情况因州法律赋予地方政府的总体自治程度等总体限制而有所不同。一些地方政府采取了创新的法律方法来应对应急准备工作。尽管在许多方面都有益处，但这些变化增加了法律准备的复杂性，并加剧了灾前规划、演习和协调的必要性。
