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Tag: pandemic

Vaccines and IP Preparedness in the Coronavirus Outbreak

Vaccines and IP Preparedness in the Coronavirus Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed renewed light on the importance of research and development (R&D) on biopharmaceutical products needed to prevent or lessen the burden posed by outbreaks of infectious diseases. Among these, the need for new vaccines has become of paramount importance. While a race to develop different types of vaccines unfolds at unusual speed, there are still significant shortcomings in the ecosystem that leads to the production and dissemination of vaccines targeting infectious diseases like COVID-19. In the…

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Korematsu in the Age of COVID – A Note on The Constitution in Times of Crisis

Korematsu in the Age of COVID – A Note on The Constitution in Times of Crisis

The case of Korematsu v. United States lives in constitutional infamy as the case which upheld the military policy of Japanese internment during WWII. In doing so, the Court—led by former KKK member Justice Black—did not deny that Japanese internment constituted a deprivation of constitutional rights. Instead, they found that the deprivation was justified due to the fact that the United States was at war. Because of this justification, Korematsu is one of several cases which stands for the proposition…

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Multi-Level Marketer Social Media Presence During COVID-19 Provokes FTC

Multi-Level Marketer Social Media Presence During COVID-19 Provokes FTC

MLMs and Why They Matter DoTERRA essential oils and other multi-level marketers (MLMs) are in trouble. Their social media presence during the COVID-19 crisis provoked Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement action in late April. But what exactly are MLMs and why are they particularly relevant during the COVID-19 crisis? MLMs sell their products directly to consumers, but, rather than using a central distribution system, they rely on a representative network for sales and recruiting. This system creates multiple levels of…

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COVID-19 Phobias About Health, Finances, Law, Leadership, and Loneliness

COVID-19 Phobias About Health, Finances, Law, Leadership, and Loneliness

COVID-19 is not just a medical and physical health pandemic; it has also led to interrelated phobias concerning health, finances, law, leadership, and loneliness. These interconnected phobias feed off each other and can alter a person’s decision-making, risk perception, and self-identity. They also create and increase anxious feelings in sufferers. Anxious people seek and take more advice, have impaired information processing and lower self-confidence, fail to differentiate between advisors with and without conflicts of interest, and fail to discern good…

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South Dakota’s COVID-19 Response is a Battleground for Tribal Sovereignty

South Dakota’s COVID-19 Response is a Battleground for Tribal Sovereignty

In a May 5 post Assistant Attorney General for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice Paul Spruhan argued that Indian tribes should have authority to restrict movement through their territories in order to stem the tide of the COVID-19 epidemic. Those very principles are now being put to the test in South Dakota, where Gov. Kristi Noem has demanded that Oglala Sioux tribal leaders remove the checkpoints set up to regulate traffic through the reservation. Gov. Noem has previously come…

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Sorry, Not Sorry: Temporary Practice in a Pandemic

Sorry, Not Sorry: Temporary Practice in a Pandemic

The American Bar Association (ABA) Board of Governors has issued a policy resolution urging states to adopt emergency rules that would authorize recent law graduates to engage in supervised law practice until the COVID-19 pandemic allows administration of the next bar exam. The ABA’s guidance encourages states to terminate these limited licenses if an applicant does not take or pass a bar examination by the end of 2021. This resolution sends a mixed message: On the one hand, emergency licensing…

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Zoom Justice: When Constitutional Rights Collide in Cyberspace

Zoom Justice: When Constitutional Rights Collide in Cyberspace

Criminal courts throughout the United States have relied upon Zoom and other videoconferencing technologies to help maintain a functioning criminal justice system amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, such technology, in place of in-person trials, potentially violates several constitutional rights afforded to the accused, and might force them to choose to exercise one right guaranteed to them by the Sixth Amendment at the expense of another. Specifically, the accused might now confront two critical constitutional choices: (1) the right to a…

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COVID-19 and Indian Country: A Legal Dispatch from the Navajo Nation

COVID-19 and Indian Country: A Legal Dispatch from the Navajo Nation

There has been much press coverage on the Navajo Nation’s struggle to contain the spread of COVID-19 on its lands. As of May 2, 2020, the Nation has 2,373 confirmed cases, and more than seventy deaths from the virus. These reports have noted the practical impediments the Nation faces in responding to the pandemic, including a high population of people with pre-existing health problems, the lack of easy access to health care, and the significant number of families without running…

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Protecting Our Health Care Providers from Liability in a Pandemic

Protecting Our Health Care Providers from Liability in a Pandemic

While COVID-19 creates profound medical concerns for health care providers, it also creates fear of potential lawsuits. Clinicians are forced to ration scarce resources, such as ventilators, when there is an inadequate supply. Medical professionals describe chaos in hospitals that makes it extremely difficult to treat all patients appropriately. Patients have had elective surgeries postponed indefinitely. Worse yet, some, including cancer patients, have had essential operations cancelled. All of these circumstances could lead to serious patient harm and subsequent litigation….

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Essential but Excluded: Vending in the Time of Corona

Essential but Excluded: Vending in the Time of Corona

Immigrants, those with legal status and those without, individuals returning from incarceration, and individuals with time-consuming childcare and other family obligations often look to start microenterprises like street vending to provide for themselves and their families. However, many municipalities in the United States apply a penal approach to street vending, criminalizing it as a form of vagrancy. Even Los Angeles, a city known for its street vending culture, criminalized the practice outright until 2019. Other cities have permitted vendors to…

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