Evolving Tweet thread: How some federal, state, and local laws and regulations hamper the response to COVID-19. Feel free to tag/DM me with additional examples.
Some police departments continue to jail people for trivial reasons, thereby increasing the risk of COVID-19 contagion especially for those arrested. Radley Balko summarizes the problem:
Texas Governor Greg Abbot removed regulatory barriers on truck delivery. "Texas is now allowing trucks that deliver alcohol to also deliver grocery supplies."
TSA restricted the carry of hand sanitizer on airplanes but changed the rules to allow 12-ounce bottles.
Pointless prescription mandates waste doctors' time and in some cases require extra trips to crowded pharmacies. Alabama eased some prescription rules.
The United States had tariffs on various medical supplies from China; the U.S. acted to ease tariffs on March 16.
Exclusionary licensing restrictions on medical professionals make it harder to adapt to problems. Various states, including Colorado, took emergency action to ease those restrictions. cpr.org/2020/03/15/lik…
Convoluted rules for approval of medical devices may have to be lifted in order to ramp up production of ventilators. Plans for 3D printed ventilators: #projectopenair is working on "open source ventilators." projectopenair.org
Pointless warehousing of "illegal" immigrants puts this population at higher risk of group contamination.
Another Tweet on the needless jailing for low-level offenses and lack of bail money, resulting in heightened contagion risk.
.@JonCaldara summarizes the ways that CO Gov. Jared Polis (@GovofCO) has eased medical licensing requirements. 
Restrictive medical licensing hinders the response to emergencies, obviously, and also just makes it harder for medical professionals to relocate during normal times.
North Carolina "temporarily waived regulations that prevent hospitals from adding or relocating hospital beds." Those regulations are stupid anytime, but especially during time of emergency.
"A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators": theweek.com/speedreads/901…
As we already knew, plastic bag bans can lead to less-sanitary alternatives: wsj.com/articles/the-p…
"Trump's Tariffs Weakened America's Hospitals. Then Coronavirus Hit." reason.com/2020/03/17/tru…
"FDA to Allow Private Companies to Market Coronavirus Test Kits Without Prior Approval." The FDA decided this on March 16, after the disease had far-outpaced testing. wsj.com/articles/fda-t…
Laws against "price gouging" have contributed significantly to runs on certain products. facebook.com/steven.greenhu…
"Immigration courts are still operating despite the spread of coronavirus: ‘It is indefensible’": inquirer.com/health/coronav…
"America simply doesn't have enough hospital beds.... In many places, that shortage of beds is the result of state-level regulations—known as "certificate of need" laws... that artificially limit the supply of medical equipment." reason.com/2020/03/13/ame…
FEE's take: "A Government Monopoly Led to Botched COVID-19 Test Kits, but Private Labs Are Now Saving the Day": fee.org/articles/a-gov…
"Why do the people who are working hardest to fight the coronavirus have to ask a slow federal bureaucracy for permission to save lives?" reason.com/2020/03/17/fda…
"The Trump Administration Drove [Weihong Tan] Back to China, Where He Invented a Fast Coronavirus Test." "Intellectual firepower [is] fleeing the U.S.": propublica.org/article/the-tr…
