(04-09-2020 09:35 PM)Wear Purple Wrote: *According to Swedish media reports, the government is looking to the Swedish parliament to give it the power to impose emergency measures like shutting businesses and public transport, which for the most part remain open, CBC reported.
How each country responds to COVID-19 has to be taken within the context of its own government's power to do something about it. It seems that, based on some
light reading from the Library of Congress, Sweden's government generally lacks the power to isolate or quarantine people. A quote from the website:
Quote:Even before Enhorn, in the legislative history of the 2003 Communicable Diseases Act the Swedish government wrote that the forced isolation of an HIV-positive person is less likely to conform with human rights because transmission of the disease requires intimate contact. It remains unclear whether forced isolation due to a more contagious disease that spreads “by casual contact”[157] is consistent with human rights as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Enhorn case refers to a situation where the Swedish government tried to isolate a person who was HIV-positive and the court ruled that because HIV could only be transmitted via "intimate contact" that the isolation was not legal. The European Union Court of Human Rights ruled on the issue. I understand the quoted section to say that it's not understood whether or not the national government of Sweden even has the power to isolate/quarantine people, which may color their response.
This ruling of the European Union Court of Human Rights is in stark contrast with
US case law surrounding isolation and quarantines. The federal government cites the Commerce Clause of the Constitution for it's power to isolate/quarantine people and is supported by at least one federal court case.
Lawfare Blog has a pretty good primer on this topic.
The Lawfare Blog article cites the
National Conference of State Legislatures as a resource for state powers. Generally, it's understood that states have certain
"police powers" to "establish and enforce laws protecting the welfare, safety, and health of the public." Virginia's section is quoted below:
Quote:
Va. Code § 32.1-42 et. seq.
Authority. The Board of Health may promulgate regulations and orders to meet any emergency or to prevent a potential emergency caused by a disease dangerous to public health or any communicable disease of public health threat involved in an order of quarantine or isolation pursuant to § 32.1-48.05 et seq. The state health commissioner shall have the authority to require quarantine, isolation, immunization, decontamination or treatment of any individual or group of individuals when he determines any such measure to be necessary to control the spread of any disease of public health importance and the authority to issue orders of isolation.
To get back to whether or not college and pro sports will happen in the fall, I think it depends on the states and localities. Based on available data, different states will peak at different times and will still be dealing with the issue around the time that summer workouts would be happening.
Remember, the "peak" refers to a number of different things in a number of different places. For example, the
University of Washington projection that people cite very often refers to the United States as a whole, not individual states, which can be akin to countries on their own. The peak in US hospital resources and deaths per day is listed as April 12-13. The number of total deaths isn't expected to level off until early- to mid-May. If you look at Virginia in particular, the hospital resources and deaths per day don't peak until April 20. Total deaths don't level off until mid-May. Every state and every locality will be different.
Let's say that Maryland is still having problems with COVID-19 or that another outbreak happens in the late-summer and a stay-at-home order (or some similar order) either still exists or is reissued. Do B1G schools de-schedule Maryland? Are Maryland sports teams individually assessed for their COVID-19 status and moved to locations outside the state to free them up to travel? Would other states allow those students to travel to their campus to compete? Etc.
Right now, I think there are too many unknowns to make a call. What I think is important, though, is for everyone to understand is that this situation is complicated, ever-evolving, and unlikely to be "over."
In a recent statement on Face the Nation, Dr. Fauci said that it's likely that COVID-19 will become a seasonal illness because it won't be contained on a global scale. It's been stated many times that it's not necessarily the unique "deadliness" of the disease or its unique communicability that makes it dangerous, it's everything that we don't know about it.
I'm hoping that our continued study and understanding of the virus allows us to return to "normal," but I also understand that the science behind these things takes time. Is the amount of time that it takes to understand the disease and adequately assess the risk of it enough to continue with fall sports? Right now, I'm not sure; but I hope that we can be sooner rather than later.