Factors limiting US public health emergency authority during COVID-19.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states in the United States have limited emergency public health authority. These limits could undermine public health efforts and raise concerns about how states and localities will prevent and respond to future public health challenges. We examined which of the 50 US states passed laws to set limits on public health emergency authority in 2021 through 2022, and their relationship to COVID-19 death rates.