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IU McKinney Law Professor Nicolas Terry says sharing information is a vital weapon against spreading disease in a pandemic such as the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a March 24 story in the Indianapolis Star about why local health authorities did not notify people who were known to be in contact with Indiana’s first known coronavirus patient, Professor Terry said that federal medical privacy laws do not inhibit a public health agency from contacting potentially exposed individuals through community tracing.

The patient died on March 16, but just days before was working at her part-time job, visiting a bar in Beech Grove and attended a meeting at a Moose Lodge.

"The federal government can waive certain provisions," Terry said." We saw this during the Katrina catastrophe in the south. And we already have two waivers that have been issued by the federal government with regard to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

“It is always a balancing question. It's just there are some things during emergencies where the balance kind of shifts the other way."

In another Indianapolis Star story on March 11, Professor Terry also warned about public health concerns regarding exposure to COVID-19 at sporting events, prior to widespread cancellations.

Professor Terry is the Hall Render Professor of Law at IU McKinney School of Law, where he serves as the Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health and teaches various healthcare and health policy courses. His recent scholarship has dealt with health privacy, mobile health, the Internet of Things, Big Data, AI, and the opioid overdose epidemic.

He is one of the permanent bloggers at Harvard Law School’s Bill of Health and is a host of “The Week in Health Law” podcast at TWIHL.com.