The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) will release new guidelines for companies next week. In a January executive order, Biden gave the agency a March 15 deadline to decide whether mandatory safety rules were necessary to protect workers from the coronavirus. Has any government agency ever overlooked imposing new restrictions on companies during a Democratic government?
Many governors and local authorities are in the process of opening up their states after a year of blockades, so what better time for the government to intervene and step in these actions? Last night, during his speech to the nation on the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus in the United States, Biden spoke out to businessmen who lost their businesses during the pandemic. He did not mention that OSHA would meet Biden’s executive mandate during his second day in the Oval Office. The new guidelines on how companies will be forced to operate during the pandemic should be temporary. Unfortunately, we know that it is rare for any government action to be temporary. Companies must prepare for what lies ahead as they try to recover. It is reported that Democrats and unions have been calling for these regulations since the beginning of the pandemic. Joe Biden never met a union that did not want to appease.
The regulations are designed to protect COVID-19 workers. OSHA has not issued a temporary emergency standard since 1983, for reference.
The emergency regulation must mandate at least the CDC and OSHA guidelines – which recommend that workers wear masks and keep six feet apart, even after vaccination – as well as other specific measures that employers must take to protect their workers exposure to coronavirus.
Masks and social detachment are already being done by most companies. OSHA is expected to make the requirements for high-grade masks, for example, such as N95, and update ventilation systems. You see where this is going – additional financial costs for companies that are already struggling to hold on until they can reopen fully again. There will be monitoring and auditing by OSHA, too, with Congress providing additional funding for this. Democrats devoted $ 75 million to OSHA in its stimulus that Biden sanctioned on Thursday. Owners will face fines if they fail to comply.
“Without one [emergency temporary standard], it is very difficult for OSHA to require employers to implement preventive measures, ”David Michaels, the former OSHA chief during the Obama administration, told lawmakers on Thursday. “If exposures in the workplace are not controlled, more workers – along with members of their families and communities – will be infected, causing more disease and death, and threatening the country’s ability to resume economic growth.”
Additional mandates in addition to current recommendations may be imminent: At the hearing at which Michaels appeared, health and safety experts urged the CDC to recognize in the guideline that the virus can be transmitted through aerosols, rather than larger droplets.
Pascaline Muhindura, a registered nurse affiliated with the National Nurses United union, defended this during the hearing on Thursday, telling lawmakers that the hospital where she worked failed to provide her and her co-workers with the appropriate protective equipment, which “Led to many Covid-19 infections and, finally, the death of one of my co-workers. “
That’s right, employers are being blamed for having blood on their hands. When Biden started his speech last night, you must remember that he hit Trump without actually saying his name and essentially accused him of having blood on his hands as well. “A year ago, we were hit by a virus that silenced and spread without control. Denials for days, weeks and months that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness. ”A public health professor took it a step further and says that“ tens of thousands ”were lost due to lack of regulation.
“It would have been better if it had appeared half a year ago,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health at Georgetown Law, who told POLITICO that the regulations to come are “ethically essential”. “We could have saved tens of thousands of lives for vulnerable workers, but even now there are many lives that we can save through solid regulation of work environments”
This will affect red states more quickly than most blue states, as few blue states are making moves to fully reopen yet. Some blue states like New York are relaxing their restrictions now. What the Biden government is going to propose is the opposite of how the Trump administration handled the pandemic. This is intentional, of course, as Biden is determined to be the anti-Trump leader, regardless of whether Trump’s policies are working or not. It is stingy and will probably be destructive for many companies, so the economic recovery of our country in general. Most companies are keeping masking mandates in place for now, even in states that are now fully open. The new federal regulations are also likely to conflict with state regulations.
“I think that’s going to be a big concern,” said Larry Lynch, senior vice president for science and industry at the National Restaurant Association. “The cost will be a significant factor.”
The incompatibility between federal recommendations and state rules has meant that some business groups have also taken a cautious approach. The National Restaurant Association says it is not yet ready to roll back its recommendations on masks.
“As we look at the spectrum of the United States and do not know exactly when things are going to change in each state, we will still recommend that restaurants require face masks for employees and require masks for guests, except for guests who are eating ”Said Lynch of the NRA.
Democrats believe in a great governmental solution for most situations. Republicans believe in individuals and personal responsibility. It has always been like that. A single list of more government regulations will not help companies across the country to return to a more normal mode of operation.