https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-admin-moves-to-make-expired-covid-rules-for-health-care-workers-permanent_4921132.html?utm


Biden Admin Moves to Make Expired COVID Rules for Health Care Workers Permanent.

In its latest effort to make permanent pandemic-era mandates for health care workers, the federal agency regulating workplace safety has submitted a final draft of rules to the White House budget office for review.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sees exposure to COVID-19 as a matter of workplace safety, in June 2021 issued a temporary emergency standard for health care facilities that include requirements around screening, ventilation, physical distancing, physical barriers, cleaning and disinfection, and masks.

In December 2021, however, OSHA announced that it would stop enforcing all temporary emergency standard requirements except for a few related to record keeping, since it was impossible to meet a six-month deadline to finalize the standard. The agency has since been working toward a permanent regulatory solution while considering “broader infectious disease rulemaking.”

On Dec. 9, almost a year after the initial withdrawal, OSHA sent a final draft to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget for review.

Although details of the final draft have yet to be shared with the public, an earlier draft required employers to enforce physical distancing, make sure workers wear masks except when they’re alone, grant paid leave for vaccination, and provide medical removal protection for workers who are unable to work due to COVID-19 infection or exposure.

The push for a permanent COVID-19 standard has been met with mixed reactions, including disappointment from employer groups and cheers from labor unions.  Unions love the rules.

On Sept. 26, Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Fred Keller (R-Penn.), the top Republicans on House Education and Labor Committee and Workforce Protections Subcommittee, respectively, argued that it’s absurd that OSHA insists to move forward with a COVID-19 rulemaking even after President Joe Biden proclaimed the pandemic to be over.

“This is the height of foolishness,” the Republicans wrote in a Sept. 26 letter to OSHA. “Our health care industry is strained enough as it is without the Biden administration demanding additional and burdensome COVID-19 requirements.”