News Release

Laws covering public health crises
to be reviewed in UNC program

CHAPEL HILL - Should "Good Samaritan" laws that protect individuals be extended to cover businesses and nonprofit organizations that also help those in jeopardy during a crisis?

That's one question that experts gathered together by the North Carolina Institute for Public Health will consider in a new program to examine laws that apply to public health emergencies.

The program also will examine whether alternative sick leave policies are needed during such crises to encourage compliance with quarantines.
The institute is the outreach and service arm of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York City has awarded the institute approximately $800,000 for the two-year program, titled "Preparing for the Moment of Law and Policy Changes: A Business and Public Health Partnership Initiative."

The program will bring together legislators, public health officials and business leaders to examine policy options, cost considerations, legal and human resource barriers and communication strategies related to community emergencies.

Senior institute fellow Gene W. Matthews, former chief legal adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will direct the program.

"The lessons from Hurricane Katrina, the SARS epidemic and the anthrax attacks after 9/11 all clearly demonstrate the need to build better coordination between the public and private sectors," Matthews said. "We must take practical steps to improve the legal incentives for the private sector to work closely with public health officials in preparing for and responding to the next emergency.

"Such cooperation can have a significant impact on both the community's health response and the economic recovery," he said.

Often there is little time or opportunity during an emergency for business leaders and public officials to perform the analysis needed to identify changes that should be made, Matthews said. Ideally, he said, such analysis and changes should be done before a crisis occurs.

The program's first goal is to create a national template that outlines key policy and cost options for reducing liability exposure and encouraging public-private collaboration.

Now, most state "Good Samaritan" laws say that individuals who try to help others during a crisis cannot be sued for those actions. But no such laws protect businesses and nonprofit entities from this type of legal action. Public health officials have an interest in removing this disincentive to public-private collaboration, Matthews said.

Besides this focus on state liability laws, the project will develop two pilot coalitions, in North Carolina and Georgia, to encourage immediate implementation of state legislative and policy changes that would apply "Good Samaritan" law liability protections to business and nonprofit entities performing community preparedness activities.

The program's second goal is to create a template of common sick leave policies for use during a public health emergency. During the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto, fear of lost wages was the leading cause of failure to comply with quarantine orders.

The institute will work with health officials and business leaders to develop common sick leave policy options in advance of the next shelter-in-place or community quarantine situation.

Dr. Ed Baker, institute director and former division chief at CDC, will join Matthews in leading the program. Key collaborators will include representatives from other academic institutions, including Georgia State University, the CDC Foundation, state agencies and other partners from the business, academic, legislative, and public health communities.

Besides the templates, collaborations and the two pilot coalitions, "Preparing for the Moment" also will disseminate lessons learned for practical applications nationwide.

- 30 -

Note: Gene Matthews can be reached at MatthewsPHLaw@aol.com (404) 606-1241

School of Public Health contact: Bev Holt, N.C. Institute for Public Health, (919) 966-6274, bev_holt@unc.edu
News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu