2022 Public Health Law Summit: Strengthening Protections & Advancing Equity

300 Light Street,Baltimore MD 21202

25 April, 2022

Description

This summit will examine strategies to strengthen public health’s capacity to protect communities and advance health and racial equity. The Summit will be divided into two focused Sections that can be registered for separately or together: Section One: Strengthening Protections for Community Health Dissatisfaction and anger at perceived overreaches by governors and public health officials in response to the pandemic has led to an onslaught of legislative proposals to eliminate or limit the ability of public health officials to take necessary actions to protect the public from serious illness, injury, and death. These efforts have the potential to impact public health in profound ways for years to come and it is foreseeable that these laws will also lead to preventable tragedies. Additionally, nationwide, state and local public health officials working to protect the public from COVID-19 are on the receiving end of threatening and harassing conduct for simply fulfilling their duty to protect the public’s health. Section Two: Advancing Health Equity Implementing laws and policies that create the foundation for achieving health equity is a goal that has increasingly gained broad consensus. Health equity is impacted by decisions that are made every day, but the scope of these impacts have historically been over-looked or not well understood. Nonetheless, there is a growing body of research, and mechanisms, that explore how law and policy in all sectors can advance health equity. This Section of the Summit will explore legal and policy mechanisms for advancing health equity across multiple areas impacting public health, with an emphasis on racial equity. Join us in Baltimore to examine the use of public health measures to mitigate harm from COVID-19, recent legislative and other efforts to severely limit these measures, and strategies to strengthen public health’s capacity to protect communities and advance health and racial equity. The Summit will be held in-person in Baltimore and registrants will be required to provide proof of vaccination at the time of registration.