Coronavirus and Vermont Law

In the past few weeks, we have been getting calls about the Coronavirus, COVID-19. Many people are very worried, and some people’s fears relate to the legal implications of the illness.

In thinking about the virus, it’s important to remember that public health officials say that most who are infected will have mild to moderate symptoms.

Here in Vermont, concern has risen quickly, particularly given media coverage of a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center employee who showed signs of Coronavirus and was told to avoid contact with others. Apparently, he went directly to a Dartmouth College mixer in Vermont. Within three days he tested positive.

If he had been formally quarantined his actions would be a misdemeanor under New Hampshire law.

Meanwhile, as Sunday, March 8, 2020, Vermont had its first confirmed coronavirus case. As of March 22, we had 52 confirmed cases, and 307 people in Vermont were being monitored for coronavirus.

Vermont’s quarantine law is skeletal. The law permits the Commissioner of Health to quarantine people but does specify a penalty for noncompliance.

That doesn’t mean that there are no legal consequences. The Vermont Supreme Court ruled in a case involving the spread of the human papilloma virus, that if a person knows or should reasonably know that they have a disease, they are required to act reasonably, or face potential civil liability for negligently spreading the disease to others.

Another important legal question that the coronavirus presents is whether workers who contract the virus on the job will get Worker’s Compensation benefits. The answer is not so clear.

In almost all cases. employees who are injured by accident at work are entitled to workers compensation benefits that would replace two-thirds of their wages while they are out of work, provide benefits for partial or total disability or even death, and cover medical expenses.

Proof will be the problem. It may be hard to show that a person acquired an infection due to a workplace exposure. It will get even harder if the coronavirus becomes commonplace.

What’s that mean? It’s likely, that nurses and other healthcare workers who contract coronavirus while treating those who have it will have receive workers compensation. But other workers may find it impossible to link their infections to work.

Obviously, the most important concerns about coronavirus are health, not money. But if health is impaired, compensation for lost income, disability and medical expenses, can be important.

These are just a few of the dozens of legal issues that a coronavirus epidemic would present. Let’s hope we avoid them.

Meanwhile, keep washing your hands!
Rich

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