Evidence and Precaution for Legal Health Interventions: Learning From the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for rapid legal interventions to protect public health has challenged standards of evidence generation and implementation. Investigators have generated high-quality evidence for drugs and vaccines at remarkable speed, but COVID-19 mitigation measures enforced by laws and regulations remain guided by the precautionary principle rather than by empirical evidence. This article discusses new concepts for embedded evidence generation for legal public health interventions in times of crisis.