About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1 Drexel L. Rev. 341 (2009)
Pandemic Preparedness: A Return to the Rule of Law

handle is hein.journals/drexel1 and id is 347 raw text is: PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS: A RETURN TO THE RULE OF LAW Wendy K. Mariner,* George J. Annas** & Wendy E. Parmet*** As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Inauguration Address of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009. I. INTRODUCTION1 On January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 apparently struck a flock of birds shortly after taking off from New York's LaGuardia airport and lost power in both of its engines.2 The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, made a skillful emergency landing in the Hudson River, and all 150 passengers and five crew members safely evacuated the plane.3 The passengers calmly helped each other out onto the wings and into the plane's life rafts. Local ferries, seeing the plane coming down, sped to the site and took the passengers on board.4 What might have been a fatal disaster in the eighteen degree Fahrenheit temperature was in fact a fairly typical example of Americans' response to emergencies. Historically, Americans have reacted to emergencies with remarkable common sense, demonstrating that one can be *Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law. **Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law. ***George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law. I. Aspects of this article are based on GEORGE J. ANNAS, WENDY K. MARINER & WENDY E. PARMET, PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS: THE NEED FOR A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH-NOT A LAW ENFORCEMENT/ NATIONAL SECURITY-APPROACH, American Civil Liberties Union (Jan. 2008), available at http://www.aclu.org/privacy/medical/33642pub20080114.html. 2. Robert D. McFadden, All 155 Aboard Safe as Crippled Jet Crash-Lands in Hudson, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 16, 2009, at Al. 3. Id. 4. Michael Wilson & Al Baker, In Icy Water, a Quick Rescue Kept Death Toll at Zero, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 16, 2009, at Al.