The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will next week introduce new guidelines for businesses. In a January executive order, Biden gave the agency a March 15 deadline to decide whether mandatory safety rules are needed to protect workers against the coronavirus. Has a government agency ever succeeded in transferring new restrictions to businesses during a democratic government?
Many governors and local officials are opening up their states after a year of lockdown, so what is the better time for the government to step in and step on these actions? Last night during his speech to the country on the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus in the United States, Biden gave lip service to business owners who lost their business during the pandemic. He did not mention that OSHA would meet its deadline set by an executive order by Biden during his second day in the Oval Office. The new guidelines on how businesses should operate during the pandemic are supposed to be temporary. Unfortunately, we know that it is rare for any action by the government to be temporary. Businesses need to focus on what is coming as they try to get back on their feet. Democrats and unions have reportedly called for these regulations since the start of the pandemic. Joe Biden never met a union he did not want to appease.
The regulations are intended to protect workers from COVID-19. OSHA has not issued a temporary emergency standard since 1983.
The emergency regulation is expected to mandate at least the CDC and OSHA guidelines – which recommend that workers wear masks and even stay away for six months, as well as other specific steps employers should take to protect their workers against coronavirus exposure. to protect.
Masks and social distance are already done by most businesses. OSHA is expected to set the requirements that masks should be of a higher grade, for example such as N95, and the upgrading of ventilation systems. You see where it’s going – additional financial costs for businesses that are already struggling to hold on until they can fully reopen. It will also be maintained and audited by OSHA, with Congress providing additional funding for it. Democrats raised $ 75 million for OSHA in their stimulus that Biden signed Thursday. Owners will be fined if they do not comply.
‘Without a [emergency temporary standard]”It is very difficult for OSHA to require employers to take precautionary measures,” David Michaels, the former OSHA chief during the Obama administration, told lawmakers on Thursday. “If workplace exposure is not controlled, more workers – along with members of their families and communities – will be infected, causing more diseases and deaths, and threatening the country’s ability to resume economic growth.”
Additional mandates beyond the current recommendations may be from scratch: during the trial where Michaels appeared, health and safety experts urged the CDC to recognize that the virus could be spread by aerosols, as opposed to larger droplets.
Pascaline Muhindura, a registered nurse attached to the National Nurses United Union, pleaded for it during the hearing on Thursday and told lawmakers that the hospital where she worked did not provide her and her staff with appropriate protective equipment, which ‘led led to many Covid-19 infections and eventually the death of one of my co-workers. ”
That’s right, employers are to blame for having blood on their hands. When Biden started his speech last night, you can remember that he used Trump without saying his name and essentially also accused him of having blood. ‘A year ago we were hit with a virus that went silent and spread unnoticed. Denials for days, weeks, then months that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness. A public health professor has taken it a step further, saying ‘tens of thousands’ have been lost due to a lack of regulations.
“It would have been better if it had come six months ago,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health at Georgetown Law, who told POLITICO that the forthcoming regulations were “ethically necessary”. “We could have saved tens of thousands of lives from vulnerable workers, but even now there are many lives we can save through thorough regulation of work environments.”
This will affect the red states faster than most blue states, as few blue states are yet to fully reopen. Some blue states like New York are now relaxing their restrictions. What the Biden government has put forward is the opposite of how the Trump administration handled the pandemic. This, of course, is by design, as Biden is determined to be the anti-Trump leader, whether the Trump policy works or not. It is small and it is likely to be devastating for many businesses, then the economic recovery of our country in general. Most businesses hold mask mandates for the time being, even in states that are now completely open. New federal regulations are also likely to clash with state regulations.
“I think that’s going to be the biggest concern,” said Larry Lynch, senior vice president of science and industry at the National Restaurant Association. “The cost there is going to be an important factor.”
The mismatch between federal recommendations and state rules also has some business groups taking a cautious approach. The National Restaurant Association says it is not quite ready to put forward its recommendations on masks.
“Since we look all over America and do not know exactly when things will change from state to country, we would still recommend that restaurants need face masks for employees and need them for guests, except for the guests who eat,” said Lynch of the NRA said.
Democrats believe in a great government solution for most situations. Republicans believe in individuals and personal responsibility. That’s how it’s always been. A uniform list of more government regulations will not help businesses across the country return to a more normal way of operating.