At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, legal practitioners anticipated a surge of pandemic-related class actions arising in the health care sector. Daily headlines noted an ever-increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospitals and assisted living facilities, alarming shortages of personal protective equipment (commonly known as PPE), inadequate medical staffing and potential lapses in patient care. But that surge has not materialized.
This surprising development is attributable, in part, to the many new state initiatives shielding health care providers from civil liability and suppressing related class action litigation during the pandemic.
