What Federalism Means for the US Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019

Authors

Sarah H. Gordon
Nicole Huberfeld, Boston University School of Public Health; Boston University School of LawFollow
David K. Jones

Author granted license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-8-2020

ISSN

2689-0186

Publisher

American Medical Association

Language

en-US

Abstract

The rapid spread of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across the United States has been met with a decentralized and piecemeal response led primarily by governors, mayors, and local health departments. This disjointed response is no accident. Federalism, or the division of power between a national government and states, is a fundamental feature of US public health authority.¹ In this pandemic, US public health federalism assures that the coronavirus response depends on zip code. A global pandemic has no respect for geographic boundaries, laying bare the weaknesses of federalism in the face of a crisis.

Recommended Citation

Sarah H. Gordon, Nicole Huberfeld & David K. Jones, What Federalism Means for the US Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 , 1 JAMA Health Forum (2020).
Available at: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0510