Published in 2018, ACRP LRD 34 Airport Public Health Preparedness and Response: Legal Rights, Powers, and Duties addressed the legal issues concerning the measures to detect communicable diseases, regulations to control communicable diseases, methods for decontamination, emergency legal preparedness, privacy, and potential sources of liability. The digest included legal analysis of authorities and strategies for navigating the system of public health governance to help airports respond effectively to future pandemics. No one could have known when LRD 34 was published that the issues in that Digest would become so significant to the airport industry only two years later.

This digest updates the ACRP LRD 34 based on lessons learned from COVID-19.  It is designed as a tool for airport attorneys and practitioners to use to prepare, plan, and coordinate with their stakeholders in response to a threat of communicable disease. The lessons learned include key practical and legal considerations to navigate the public health governance and significant challenges, and effective transitions by airports to the new reality that pandemics may not be once-in-a-century phenomena. The digest includes recommended actions and strategies to effectively navigate pandemic response in light of federalism and the unique legal and regulatory constraints on airports within the national air transportation system.

STATUS: Published as LRD 44