[1] Public health law focuses on the duties of the government to achieve these goals, limits on that power, and the population perspective.
Police power can be defined as the inherent power of a government to exercise reasonable control over persons and property within its jurisdiction in the interest of the general security, health, safety, morals, and welfare except where legally prohibited.
Practitioners apply legislation, regulation, litigation (private enforcement), and international law to public health problems using the law as an instrument of public health.
Some research suggests a tension in public health law regarding institutions' duties to protect public health and their duties to protect individual freedom: the best predictor of support for common public health recommendations such as hand-washing, mask-wearing, and staying at home (to avoid the spread of disease) were people's beliefs that we should prevent great harm when doing so doesn't cause greater harm, but the best predictor of flouting these public health recommendation was people's preferences for liberty over equality.
So securing support for public health laws will require a careful appeal to each of these seemingly competing concerns.