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Tag: Public Health Service Act
Surge of the JN.1 COVID-19 Variant Sparks Renewed Public Health and Legal Debates on Federal Authority and Individual Rights
On January 5, 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the JN.1 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 accounted for approximately 62 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States—an increase from an estimated 39 to 50 percent just two weeks earlier. JN.1, an offspring of the BA.2.86 Omicron lineage, rapidly emerged as the dominant strain not only in the U.S. but globally, driving surges in hospitalizations and prompting renewed public health vigilance (). While current vaccine formulations remain effective in preventing severe illness, the swift transmissibility of JN.1 has reignited debates over federal and state powers to enact, modify, or rescind mitigation measures, including vaccine recommendations, mask mandates, and travel restrictions, under U.S. constitutional constructs. In light of this, legal scholars must revisit foundational public health statutes, Supreme Court precedent on police power and individual liberties, and evolving administrative procedures to understand how emergent variants like JN.1 reshape policy responses.