Pirate's Cove

One would have though a UK based news outlet would have seen the complete Fascism of the UK government’s response to COVID, but, since the Guardian leans way left, maybe not

US supreme court rulings will affect response to threats like bird flu – experts

Four recent decisions from the US supreme court have unleashed the greatest changes to the American regulatory state in decades and will probably affect responses to emerging threats like the bird flu outbreak currently spreading in the country, experts say.

The decisions will have ripple effects for enforcing and creating regulations, including complicated technical and scientific rules, and they could open up agencies to increased legal challenges.

The rulings may create a “chilling” effect for regulations beyond the scope of the individual decisions, said Josh Michaud, an associate director for global health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization.

These rules seem likely to affect the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and drugs, improvements for clean water and air, reduced carbon emissions, consumer safety, and the control of infectious diseases, Gostin said.

And they should have a chilling effect: the Executive Branch, from the White House down, can no longer create rules beyond the scope of what the Legislative Branch specifically tasked them to do. They can no longer simply come up with so many of the things we saw during COVID, like dictating masks, which really do not work, and 6 feet spreads. They need Congress to authorize it. Just as the Constitution intended. Nor can the Legislative Branch give their power to the Executive to make what rules they want. It’s like a non-transferable warranty: you cannot transfer it. Period.

The news comes as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports three more cases of bird flu in Colorado poultry workers, bringing the tally to 13 people who have tested positive for H5N1, a highly pathogenic avian influenza, this year after close contact with animals.

“Bird flu is complicated because even at the best of times, our regulatory framework for dealing with it is chaotic and has many gaps, because it involves multiple agencies that have overlapping and sometimes inconsistent orders and regulations,” Gostin said.

OMG, we’re dooommmmeeeeddddd…wait, 13? Out of almost 336 million, plus all those millions of illegals? 13? The Guardian is getting worked up over that? Were any federal agencies thinking of going Fascist over this?

In the Loper Bright decision, the supreme court overturned something known as Chevron deference, where judges prioritize federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous language in federal laws – opening up uncertainty in agencies’ ability to make or enforce rules not explicitly enshrined in law.

So, Britain, we have a Constitution, and the Executive Branch cannot act like potentates. And the States and We The People retain all power not expressly delegated to the Congress.

“The supreme court is asking Congress to say very, very specifically what it wants to regulate,” Gostin said. In the past, Congress has delegated regulatory capacity to agencies because they tend to have greater scientific and technical expertise – and because dysfunction among lawmakers could bog down the advancement of thousands of regulations needed to keep Americans safe, Gostin said.

Another reason agencies have taken the lead, he said, is because “it’s impossible for Congress to foresee all of the evolving health threats that people face”.

Tough. Congress critters get paid to do the job, and they ran for the job. Stop wasting time on stupid stuff, and do the job.

On Thursday, the UK Health Security Agency slightly elevated its risk assessment of bird flu for people, raising their level of risk from 3 to 4 – a change from “limited” to “sustained” transmission among mammals, including limited spread in people.

The number of people in the UK who have gotten bird flu in 2024 is so low that there really is almost no news on it. And most people are highly skeptical now after COVID over-reaction.