{"id":2341,"date":"2021-06-16T01:07:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T01:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/?p=2341"},"modified":"2021-06-16T01:07:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T01:07:59","slug":"15-states-are-taking-important-action-following-2020s-lockdown-carnage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/?p=2341","title":{"rendered":"15 States Are Taking Important Action Following 2020’s Lockdown Carnage"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jon Miltimore<\/a><\/p>\n

More than a dozen states have passed or advanced legislation to place new checks on the powers of public health agencies in the wake of the pandemic<\/i><\/b>\"closed_permanently.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Mike Fratantuono grew up in a restaurant. Literally.<\/p>\n

For decades, Sunset Restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland, was the family business. Over the years, he\u2019d done seemingly every job imaginable: busboy, bartender, and butcher; prep cook and plumber; handyman and manager.<\/p>\n

Fratantuono says that\u2019s what made it so hard to watch the family\u2019s legacy become a COVID casualty in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kills me. We were supposed to be getting ready to celebrate our 60th anniversary this year, and instead we\u2019re packing up and closing at the end of this month,\u201d Fratantuono told the Washington Post<\/a> last year. \u201cI try not to get too sentimental about it, because it won\u2019t change a damn thing, but sometimes the stress hits me and my heart starts going like crazy. I get frustrated. It makes me angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fratantuono is just one of the countless business owners across America who saw their dreams vanish before their eyes in the wake of government lockdowns that crushed their businesses. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, states across the country are advancing legislation to curb the powers of public health departments following one of the most destructive and contentious years in American history.<\/p>\n

Reining in Public Health Agencies<\/h3>\n

In May, the Network for Public Health Law published a report<\/a> showing that in recent months no fewer than 15 state legislatures have passed or are considering passing measures that would restrict the legal authority of public health departments.<\/p>\n

Among the provisions passed or considered are the following:<\/p>\n

\u25cf Prohibitions on requiring citizens to wear masks;<\/p>\n

\u25cf Prohibiting health agencies from closing businesses or schools;<\/p>\n

\u25cf Banning the use of quarantines for people who have not been shown to be sick;<\/p>\n

\u25cf Preventing state hospitals and universities from requiring vaccinations for employees and students;<\/p>\n

\u25cf Preventing local governments from exercising emergency powers that are inconsistent with state health department guidelines;<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, for example, North Dakota passed legislation<\/a> making it unlawful for state officials to force citizens to wear masks\u2014just one of a growing number of states to place restrictions<\/a> on mask orders. In March, Kansas\u2019s legislature passed legislation that removes the governor\u2019s ability to shut down businesses<\/a> during a public health emergency.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, more than 40 states passed legislation that made it unlawful<\/a> for health departments to mandate COVID-19 vaccination.<\/p>\n

A recent report found that no fewer than 15 state legislatures have passed or are considering passing measures that would curb the powers of public health departments.<\/p>\n

This is very good news. pic.twitter.com\/5WJbAAGzNV<\/a>
\n\u2014 Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) June 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Serious Threat to Life?<\/h3>\n

The report concludes that opposition to \u201creasonable\u201d public health measures poses serious dangers to life and health.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegislation to stop expert public health agencies from leading the response to health emergencies creates unforeseen, serious risks to life and health,\u201d the report states. \u201cThese laws could make it harder to advance health equity during a pandemic that has disproportionately sickened and killed Black, Hispanic and Latino, and Indigenous Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not mentioned in the report, however, are the unintended consequences of the actions taken by public health agencies across the country in 2020. The collateral damage of lockdowns included business closures, job losses, supply disruptions, mass protests<\/a>, surging violence<\/a>, increased mental health<\/a> problems, unprecedented drug overdoses<\/a>, and a collapse<\/a> in cancer screenings.<\/p>\n

Public health agencies, meanwhile, proved incapable<\/a> of taming the coronavirus through the use of lockdowns. And these struggles were not confined to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cA new study by German scientists claims to have found evidence that lockdowns may have had little effect on controlling the coronavirus pandemic,\u201d The Telegraph reported last week<\/a>. \u201cStatisticians at Munich University found \u2018no direct connection\u2019 between the German lockdown and falling infection rates in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lesson of Lockdowns<\/h3>\n

The devastating impact of lockdowns, combined with their failure to slow the spread of the virus, demonstrates why states are right to curb the powers of public health agencies.<\/p>\n

If 2020 taught us anything, it\u2019s the danger of unchecked executive power. Using emergency powers, governors and public health bureaucrats across the country took unilateral, sweeping, and indefinite measures that massively damaged livelihoods and infringed on the rights of millions of Americans. People were fined and arrested for simply gathering<\/a> privately or exercising outside, walking a pet, paddling a boat<\/a> on the water (alone), or taking a child to the park\u2014even though most transmissions<\/a> took place in homes and the coronavirus is rarely transmitted outdoors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Americans may disagree on the precise role public health departments should play in society today. But the pandemic reminded us why checks and balances on concentrated power are so important.<\/p>\n

The American constitutional system was deliberately designed to avoid concentrated power because the Framers feared it above all else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty,\u201d wrote John Adams.<\/p>\n

The authors of the Network for Public Health Law report express concern that public health agencies are being stripped of the power to act by dangerous radicals. The truth is that dangerously radical government agencies are being put in check.<\/p>\n

Ohio, for example, passed a law<\/a> in March that limits the length of a public health emergency order to 90 days unless it\u2019s extended by the legislature. The same month, lawmakers in Utah passed legislation allowing the state legislature to override state health agency orders during public health emergencies. Missouri, meanwhile, has proposed a law that limits lockdowns<\/a> to 15 days, after which extensions must be approved by legislative bodies.<\/p>\n

These reforms are not radical. They are both reasonable and sensible. They do not represent an attack on science\u2014which tells us what is<\/a>, not what we ought to do\u2014but are prudent checks on power from lawmakers acting within their rightful province.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is necessary to curb the power of government,\u201d the economist Ludwig von Mises noted in Human Action. \u201cThis is the task of all constitutions, bills of rights and laws. This is the meaning of all struggles which men have fought for liberty.\u201d<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

The preservation of liberty, protected by separating and checking power, is the ideal on which the American system was founded. Following a year that saw Americans\u2019 rights, dreams, and health trampled by central planners wielding vast power with little restraint and few checks, it\u2019s a vision Americans are right to rekindle.<\/p>\n

Just ask Mike Fratantuono and the millions of other Americans whose lives were derailed in 2020.<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jon Miltimore More than a dozen states have passed or advanced legislation to place new checks on the powers of public health agencies in the wake of the pandemic Mike Fratantuono grew up in a restaurant. Literally. For decades, Sunset Restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland, was the family business. Over the years, he\u2019d done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}