This bill establishes principles of focused protection for a pandemic of a highly infectious respiratory disease for public health authorities to follow, including:
1. Considering the impact on overall public health instead of being focused on a single disease;
2. Weighing the short-term versus the long-term consequences of any public health measure;
3. Protecting vulnerable populations and not shifting the burden of protecting against the disease from the affluent to the less affluent;
4. Addressing the needs of various populations in the State, including considering places of worship essential;
5. Basing comparative risk evaluations, risk reductions and reduction of uncertainties on using the best available scientific evidence but recognizing that risk cannot be entirely eliminated;
6. Presenting facts as the basis for guidance and not employing fear, shame or falsehood to manipulate the public;
7. Not forcing medical interventions on a population, which must be voluntary and based upon informed consent rather than coercion; and
8. Being honest and transparent, giving fact-based and data-based advice and acknowledging errors or changed evidence.