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One Easy Thing Trump Could Do Tomorrow to Protect Healthcare Workers from the Coronavirus
Enact the OSHA standard by Executive Order.
Then ENFORCE it.
Since the earliest days of the Trump administration, the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration has had a completed draft of workplace rules that were made for the very crisis we now find ourselves in, with the power to protect vulnerable healthcare workers from exposure to infectious diseases like COVID-19.
According to the Washington Post, the draft regulation would require employers to provide healthcare workers with protective equipment and create plans to control the spread of infectious diseases, potentially including building isolation rooms for quarantining patients. The only problem is the administration doesn’t seem to have much interest in action.
... David Michaels, the former OSHA head, wrote in the Atlantic that issuing the infectious disease emergency standard would essentially empower the federal agency to enforce the infection-control guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
The standard would require employers to develop and implement an infection-control plan to protect health-care and related workers with occupational exposure. It would include provisions for worker training and distribution of masks and other personal protective equipment.
Rules that require employers to plan for an epidemic may seem like common sense... many is not enough. An OSHA standard ... would, in essence, make following CDC guidance an enforceable requirement.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Michaels said that the regulation would require hospitals to create a protocol for handling any patients with respiratory symptoms and to assess if they had enough protective gear. “The framework is there,” he said. “If OSHA wanted to modify the standard, it could put it out tomorrow.”
According to the Washington Post, the draft regulation would require employers to provide healthcare workers with protective equipment and create plans to control the spread of infectious diseases, potentially including building isolation rooms for quarantining patients. The only problem is the administration doesn’t seem to have much interest in action.
... David Michaels, the former OSHA head, wrote in the Atlantic that issuing the infectious disease emergency standard would essentially empower the federal agency to enforce the infection-control guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
The standard would require employers to develop and implement an infection-control plan to protect health-care and related workers with occupational exposure. It would include provisions for worker training and distribution of masks and other personal protective equipment.
Rules that require employers to plan for an epidemic may seem like common sense... many is not enough. An OSHA standard ... would, in essence, make following CDC guidance an enforceable requirement.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Michaels said that the regulation would require hospitals to create a protocol for handling any patients with respiratory symptoms and to assess if they had enough protective gear. “The framework is there,” he said. “If OSHA wanted to modify the standard, it could put it out tomorrow.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/osha-rule-protect-healthcare-workers-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR0kWdyaMjCShe_YFAfxzF8ykcgGoDqrLRRNKz2DdbQEigOJMAPh1d2sqAg
