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Lindsay Wiley Profile picture
Lindsay Wiley
@ProfLWiley
Law Prof @UCLA_Law & Faculty Director @UCLAHLPP. Tweeting about health law, policy & ethics, public health, global health, social & legal epidemiology
3 subscribers
Jul 9, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I’d missed this one. Of interest to torts profs as well as public health folks. A bit more context on the California Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month… A federal court certified two questions of state tort law to the state supreme court: does CA common law recognize claims by an employee’s family members against an employer for covid brought home from the workplace & if so, are those claims preempted by the workers comp law?
Jan 30, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
The WH has informed Congress it will decline to renew the s. 319 public health emergency declaration for Covid, allowing it to expire May 11, & will terminate the s. 201 national emergency declaration on the same date. apnews.com/article/biden-… These are just two of several federal declarations that provide flexibility re: funding & removing regulatory barriers for Covid response. The s. 564 EUA declaration and s. 319F-3 PREP Act declarations are unaffected
Apr 20, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
One reason to be concerned about rogue judges who aggrandize their independent analysis above precedent/briefing/leg history/deference to experts is litigants don’t have the opportunity to raise counter arguments re: whatever pops into the judge’s head during opinion drafting. A major theme of covid cases has been judges thinking for themselves about things like whether temp checks might have worked as well as universal masking, whether gyms are more or less risky than grocery stores, whether there are good reasons to keep liquor stores open, etc. etc
Jan 25, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Minimizing severe illness/deaths & ensuring equitable access to safer in-person services/interactions for people who remain highly vulnerable in spite of vaxxed status depends on our ability to dial up mandates & restrictions during times when they’re most needed. Keeping the most disruptive restrictions in place too long in too many places in late spring 2020 made it harder to dial up mitigation when & where it’s been needed most in the months that followed.
Dec 20, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Reasons for not adopting recommended behaviors vary. Effective responses do, too. But shame is ineffective across the board. For the firmly recalcitrant, shame from the covid-cautious reinforces “us vs. them” mentality, adding more fuel to their opposition. Off-ramps that let them change their approach going forward w/o accepting the narrative that they’ve been stupid & selfish are more productive.
Oct 18, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Thinking about Colin Powell. Reminder that when we talk about endemicity, we have to talk about legal rights & social supports for people who cannot be safely/effectively vaccinated, especially those who are also at increased risk of severe illness & death. Accessibility for people who remain highly vulnerable to covid in spite of vaccination requires that people around them who *can* be safely/effectively vaccinated are.
Sep 15, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Even under the “most favored nation” interpretation of religious liberty, vaccine exemptions may not be constitutionally required. H/t @JimOleske.

theconversation.com/whats-the-law-… In M.A. v Rockland Co., SDNY held that the availability of medical exemptions doesn’t trigger a constitutional requirement to offer religious exemptions on equally favorable terms b/c medical exemptions serve the same purpose as vaccination mandates, rather than undermining it.
Aug 28, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
The leaked draft would require proof of vax for patrons of gathering places (bars, restaurants, gyms, hotels, event centers, sports arenas) & vax OR weekly testing for all employees (private or public, regardless of high-risk setting). Medical but not religious exemptions. There's been speculation about a mandate for all eligible residents of a jurisdiction--like the mandate upheld by SCOTUS in Jacobson v. Massachusetts in 1905. But logistical & enforcement issues make a "conditional mandate" (vax required if you want to...) more feasible.
Aug 27, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Tonight’s #SCOTUS order on CDC’s eviction moratorium adopts precisely the “directness” test I’ve argued is the only logical way to invalidate the eviction order while sparing CDC’s transit mask & cruise ship orders. This is a much narrower opinion than it could have been.
Aug 26, 2021 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Does v. Mills will be an important case to watch. I believe this may be the first major federal case challenging a govt. covid vax requirement that doesn't allow religious exemptions. pressherald.com/2021/08/25/flo… I have a pdf of the complaint, but not a link. I'll add one to this thread as soon as I can find it online.
Feb 26, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Today, a federal district court in TX ruled that CDC's eviction freeze exceeded the limited powers of the federal govt because evictions are not economic activity, because they do not concern production/use of a commodity traded in an interstate market. Last fall, two other district courts upheld the prior version of the CDC eviction moratorium in response to slightly different legal challenges.
Feb 7, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
I’d like a break from constitutional crises for a while, but I do think states should maintain facially orders limiting large gatherings that define gatherings in specific, risk-based terms. They should apply them to religious services when those terms are met. States should take Roberts’s opinions (he explains the scientific consensus better than many governors) about what makes attending a gathering different from shopping & translate it into a new approach to limiting high-risk gatherings w/o singling out religion for specific rules.
Feb 6, 2021 • 26 tweets • 4 min read
What did the US Supreme Court do last night? A thread for non-lawyers. One of the things non-lawyers often get wrong about constitutional rights is that they think of them as absolute limits on what government can do.
Feb 6, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Four opinions, 15 pages on the constitutionality of covid restrictions from #SCOTUS yesterday. *Zero* citations to Jacobson, three references to "deference." This is a turning point for public health law we'll be marking for decades to come. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf… From Roberts: "As I explained the last time the Court considered this evolving case, federal courts owe significant deference to politically accountable officials with the 'background, competence, and expertise to assess public health.'" Citation to his opinion in South Bay I
Feb 5, 2021 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Confusion over various endpoints for the covid pandemic is flaring up again. Eradication, elimination, containment, suppression, transition to seasonal/endemic covid, etc. are terms that even scientists use in inconsistent ways. Here's a decent explainer (though, unhelpfully, some scientists and policymakers may use the terms used here in ways that are distinct from how they're used here): theconversation.com/eradication-el…
Feb 1, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The Trump admin’s contracts with CVS & Walgreens to send vaccination teams to nursing homes & other facilities is an utter disaster. Tying up far more doses than needed beyond the reach of state & local officials, yet still failing to reach many facilities anywhere near on time. Many of the doses “sitting on shelves” appear to be on shelves owned by CVS & Walgreens & subject to restrictions imposed by federal contracts. They’re beyond the control of state governments, but governors are getting blamed.
Jan 30, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Yesterday’s federal mask order, issued by CDC under its statutory authority to prevent the spread of communicable disease from state to state, requires workers & travelers to wear masks on public transport & in transport hubs. cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf… Public transport (“conveyances” in the language of the law) includes planes, trains, subways, busses, taxis, & ride shares, including for trips that don’t cross state lines. Order doesn’t apply to private vehicles or commercial trucks occupied by the driver alone. Hubs = stations
Jan 29, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Prioritization vs speed is a false choice that ignores that we’re expecting to transition from vaccine scarcity to abundance over the course of the year (in the US, very different scenarios in different countries, some have abundance now, others have nothing w/ no end in sight) When we have more supply, speed will skyrocket. Non-scarce doses can be pushed to multiple outlets (public clinics, pharmacies, doctors offices , workplaces, schools, etc) in addition to huge mass vax sites. 2, 3, 4, 5 million shots/day could be feasible when doses = abundant.
Jan 12, 2021 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
New in @Health_Affairs: “Public Health Emergency Reform Is Coming—These Six Principles Should Guide It.”
bit.ly/3rTJQKF Thread 👇 In a legislative session in which some on the far right are seeking to strip executive emergency powers, I’ve crafted a balanced approach to reforming #PublicHealth statutes in light of concerns about overreach without unduly hindering swift responses & nimble adjustments.
Jan 11, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This thread re: @ratatousical resonates with some of my thoughts about how in-person education might be even better after our year of connecting online... I feel like I’m getting to know my students (in smaller classes, at least) *better* than in a typical F2F semester. I’d already noticed that in some of the fully online courses I teach in @AUWCL’s MLS program, but it really stood out to me when my JD courses shifted online.
Jan 10, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Unless we switch to untested 1-dose protocol, we currently have enough doses nationally to vax 40% of over 65s. 40 million doses remaining = 20 million vaccinated. And that’s only if we don’t vax any more under-65 high-exposure folks in health care, education. If we release all doses from ultra-cold storage right now, it will take careful planning & oversight to ensure we don’t accidentally force the untested 1-dose protocol on a lot of people. I’m not saying it can’t be done, just that caution is warranted.