The Washington Post | July 25, 2021
The act, which strengthened powers to respond to public health emergencies, largely withstood the tests of Zika and Ebola. It anticipated the need for mask mandates and social distancing but failed to foresee other characteristics of the current pandemic — including lockdowns in America’s biggest cities, said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University who drafted the act.
“We are always looking back at the current or past crisis, not the future crisis,” Gostin said.