Background
Last month, in light of the Omicron wave sweeping the U.S. at alarming rates, the CDC changed its guidance on isolation for individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. Instead of recommending 10 days of isolation, the period was shortened to 5, with no requirement for a negative test to return to the workplace. The guidance, which has been justified by officials including Anthony Fauci and Rochelle Walensky as necessary to maintain “the structure of society,” has been succinctly summarized as: “let them work sick.”
The changed recommendation has brought into sharp focus many critical undercurrents of the domestic policy response to COVID-19: the promotion of capital to the exclusion and detriment of individual health; the disregard for vulnerable individuals; the workplace as a locus of disease; the failure to protect and accommodate workers.
The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School is soliciting brief (750-1,000 word) reflections on these critical intersections of work, health, and disability raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. These reflections will be published as a digital symposium on Bill of Health, the blog of the Petrie-Flom Center. Bill of Health receives over one million visits yearly, and its coverage of the pandemic has anticipated key issues, including legal challenges to vaccine mandates, the threat of new viral variants, and public health messaging concerns.
Submissions
If you are interested in contributing, please submit your brief proposal through the following link. We are reviewing proposals on a rolling basis with priority to those submitted in advance of the January 21 deadline.
For symposium-related questions not addressed in this call, please email creichel@law.harvard.edu.
Many thanks for your consideration,
Michael Stein, Marissa Mery, and Chloe Reichel
