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Pennsylvania lawmakers are warning that proposed changes to the state’s public health rules could usher in “COVID 2.0,” giving health officials sweeping “police power” over residents during future disease outbreaks.
Lawmakers opposing Pennsylvania’s planned 502-page rewrite of state health code rules are urging the public to submit comments before the deadline, warning the proposal could serve as a roadmap to unfettered and intrusive restrictions and surveillance efforts, including the reported ability for agency representatives to enter private homes.
“This absolutely is COVID 2.0, but it’s even worse because [Governor] Josh Shapiro is trying to circumnavigate or skirt the constitutional provision that we the people in Pennsylvania voted to take that kind of power away from the governor,” said state Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, who is leading the charge against the policy changes.
“We were the only state in the nation to reduce our governor’s powers by a constitutional amendment after COVID,” Diamond said, adding that “surveillance, segregation and quarantine” are areas being assessed.
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Pennsylvania voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2021 limiting the duration of a governor’s disaster declaration to 21 days unless extended by the General Assembly. Those emergency powers played a central role in then-Gov. Tom Wolf’s statewide mitigation orders.
In the 502-page proposed Regulation 10-242, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, the Pennsylvania Department of Health proposes expanding the list of reportable diseases, infections and conditions and updating the rules to reflect changing expert standards. “The Department proposes to add language in this subsection, indicating that the Department or a local health authority may enter an apartment, a building, a health care facility, a school, college or university, or other location as necessary to conduct its investigation under 208 this chapter,” one provision highlighted by critics reads.
“I don’t think that we want a very left-leaning governor with his Department of Health and their henchmen having this kind of police power in Pennsylvania,” Diamond said.
A spokesperson for Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen — who led the Pittsburgh area’s COVID mitigation response — said Shapiro “did not personally propose” the updates and rejected critics’ characterizations.
“Any misconstruing of these proposed changes designed to scare Pennsylvanians is inaccurate and disingenuous,” Neil Ruhland told Fox News Digital.
A Shapiro spokesperson also responded to criticism Wednesday, saying the governor’s philosophy is that “public health depends on trust” and emphasizing that the proposed health regulations are part of a larger effort to update about 200 regulatory areas across state agencies.
Lapowsky told Fox News Digital that the public, stakeholders, independent regulators and the legislature can review and respond to the proposed changes.
“Once public comment concludes later this month, [Shapiro] will weigh in, and the regulations will be revised accordingly,” she said.
Lapowsky said Shapiro’s emphasis on public trust includes respecting parental rights. Critics say the proposed regulations could give health officials greater authority over certain disease-control measures involving children, including masking. Lapowsky added that the governor believes “government should work closely with the people it serves.”
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Ruhland said the Pennsylvania Department of Health began analyzing and proposing regulatory updates several years ago and that the regulations in question are 25 years old and need modernization to “better support evolving public health needs and manage dangerous disease.”
While the proposed regulations do not themselves enact a new mask mandate, they would broaden disease-control language beyond “surveillance,” a term central to litigation over Pennsylvania’s statewide school masking order during the pandemic.
Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Jesse Topper told Fox News Digital that although the proposed regulations directly affect Pennsylvania, Americans elsewhere should also pay attention.
“Everybody in the United States was impacted by COVID one way or another,” said Topper, R-McConnellsburg.
“We were one of the worst locked-down states in the entire nation. And we had one of the worst death rates from COVID… We don’t want unelected bureaucrats making those decisions. We need to follow the [Commonwealth] Constitution, which says, ‘Hey, you can declare a public health disaster emergency if you want. But after 21 days, the legislature gets to say whether you can continue that or not’.”
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State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, who, along with Diamond, led demonstrations against lockdown policies during COVID, told Fox News Digital that the proposed regulations are an “end-round” around voters.
“Pennsylvania endured enough government overreach during COVID. We will not go back,” said Mastriano, whom President Donald Trump nominated to serve as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia.
Jason Richey, an attorney and the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, also dubbed the changes “COVID 2.0.”
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“These are even worse than the COVID rules… [DOH] can look at your medical records. They can enter any building and go in without a warrant to do an investigation. They can even take your kid from school and talk to him privately without your consent,” Richey said in a video recorded outside a Pennsylvania Department of Health office in Lehigh County last week.
Beyond the public health implications, Topper said he is concerned that the proposed regulations would expand government authority.
Topper and Ruhland both encouraged Pennsylvanians to submit feedback on the proposed regulations before Monday’s public-comment deadline.
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