Some of the most alarming government actions since the COVID-19 pandemic began have weakened state authority to safeguard public health. At least 26 states have removed traditional powers from local health departments, the institutions tasked with protecting us.
New state laws, for example, take away or limit health officials’ abilities to require masks, promote vaccinations, close restaurants and schools or even impose quarantines.
These limitations on local authority might seem inevitable in a country where voters often fear government overreach. But in fact these changes run counter to the historical trend in the U.S., which has overwhelmingly been to increase public health powers during epidemics.
At the beginning of European settlement in America, there were no government health departments. But, faced with devastating, terrifying and frequent outbreaks of deadly diseases, colonists established temporary boards of health to set public policy intended to save lives.
These temporary boards quarantined ships in the harbor, required sick residents to isolate at home and disbanded when the epidemics passed. But, over time, these boards became permanent. They increasingly expanded local and state authority to regulate community behavior in the name of public health. The public cooperated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as Americans developed a sense of civic obligation and responsibility.