{"id":5918,"date":"2022-04-27T09:18:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T13:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2022-04-27T10:42:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T14:42:05","slug":"osha-healthcare-worker-covid-19-hearing-starts-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2022\/04\/27\/osha-healthcare-worker-covid-19-hearing-starts-today\/","title":{"rendered":"OSHA Healthcare Worker COVID-19 Hearing Starts Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OSHA\u2019s rulemaking hearing for a permanent standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 begins this morning at 9:30 a.m. The hearing will be conducted remotely and you can view today&#8217;s hearing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KINCXznAvok\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 The hearing is currently scheduled to last 4 days: the rest of this week &#8212; April 27, 28, 29 and Monday, May 2. While the healthcare worker Emergency Temporary Standard issued last June forms the official proposal for a permanent standard, OSHA also requested further comment in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/laws-regs\/federalregister\/2022-03-23-0\">Federal Register notice<\/a> issued March 23.<\/p>\n<p>Links to watch each day of the full hearing can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/coronavirus\/healthcare\/rulemaking\">here<\/a>\u00a0and the list of witnesses and approximate time of their testimony can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/OSHA-COVID-19-Healthcare-Rulemaking-Hearing-Schedule-Revised-042622.pdf\">here<\/a>. All of the written comments can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/document\/OSHA-2020-0004-1525\/comment\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tune in to the hearing. As former OSHA head David Michaels always tells his George Washington University public health students, &#8220;OSHA regulatory hearings are like Halley&#8217;s Comet. They don&#8217;t come around very often, but when they do, they&#8217;re something to see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;OSHA regulatory hearings are like Halley&#8217;s Comet. They don&#8217;t come around very often, but when they do, they&#8217;re something to see.&#8221; &#8211; Dr. David Michaels<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Those In Favor of Protecting Healthcare Workers<\/h2>\n<p>Numerous labor unions and public health associations are scheduled to testify in support of a strong standard,\u00a0 Healthcare workers will also testify as part of their union delegatinos.<\/p>\n<p>All supporters emphasize the need for OSHA to recognize that COVID-19 is easily transmitted through airborne exposure and requirements for respiratory protection (and improved ventilation) needs to reflect that.\u00a0 It is only recently that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has half-heartedly recognized airborne transmission and the need for healthcare workers to use N95 or better respirators, rather than surgical masks that provide minimal protection.<\/p>\n<p>A group of more than 100 public and occupational health experts (including me) sent a comment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2033\">letter<\/a> to OSHA supporting the establishment of a strong and permanent standard. As their press releases describes,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Explaining that healthcare workers remain at high risk for COVID-19, the experts call on OSHA to\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">require measures that would be more protective than the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that OSHA issued last June. The letter states that the original OSHA ETS had failed to fully recognize and protect healthcare workers against aerosol exposure which left many healthcare workers without fully protective respiratory protection \u201cputting them, their co-workers, patients and their families at risk of exposure, illness, and death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Specifically, the experts\u2019 comments called for<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Protecting healthcare workers from exposure to airborne particles, including requirements for employers to follow the hierarchy of controls, including engineering controls, to provide clean indoor air involving ventilation, filtration and\/or application germicidal ultraviolet technology;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Respiratory protection programs requiring NIOSH-certified respirators;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Paid sick leave (medical removal benefits);\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Enhanced recording and reporting of cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The experts&#8217; letter, along with the comments of labor unions and many public health associations, also oppose OSHA&#8217;s proposal to provide a &#8220;safe harbor&#8221; to employers who comply with CDC guidance instead of the OSHA standard, pointing out &#8220;the inadequacy of many of CDC\u2019s recommendations&#8221; and the fact that<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 40px;\">some of CDC\u2019s recommendations are not set through a transparent process and often prioritize political considerations and supply considerations over the best available scientific evidence about how best to protect workers&#8230;.The extended delay in CDC\u2019s recognition of the importance of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, despite robust evidence, is a prime example of CDC\u2019s failure to update its recommendations to incorporate the best available scientific evidence.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;The extended delay in CDC\u2019s recognition of the importance of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, despite robust evidence, is a prime example of CDC\u2019s failure to update its recommendations to incorporate the best available scientific evidence.&#8221; &#8212; Public health experts&#8217; comments to OSHA<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dr. David Michaels, who co-authored the comments (along with former AFL-CIO health and safety director Peg Seminario) is scheduled to testify at 1:00 on April 28. Seminario will testify as part of the AFL-CIO delegation at 9:30 this morning.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/downloads.regulations.gov\/OSHA-2020-0004-2120\/attachment_1.pdf\">AFL-CIO<\/a> documented that COVID-19 presents a significant risk to health care workers, a fact that justifies an OSHA standard. The labor federation also documents the high toll that health care workers have paid during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>And the crisis for health care workers has not passed.\u00a0 Although the numbers are severely undercounted, thousands of health care workers have died due to work-related COVID-19 infections, and healthcare workers remain at high risk. While worker infection status in acute care hospitals is severely underreported, there is much better information on nursing homes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">CDC reports that among nursing home workers in skilled nursing facilities, a total of 339,753 cases were reported with a peak in infections in mid-January (week ending January 16, 2022) when 68,861 COVID-19 cases were reported among nursing home staff for one week. The spike in infections among nursing home workers during the omicron surge was fast and enormous. In just a three-week period, infections among nursing home workers increased more than 500%\u2014from 13,350 infections for the week ending December 26, 2021 to the nearly 69,000 weekly infections at the peak in mid-January. This was the fastest, exponential increase among these workers since early in the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The AFL also notes that workers need not only workforce protections, based on the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, but also the right to get trained, participate in creating a program as well as\u00a0 receive information on infections in their workplace.<\/p>\n<p>The AFL-CIO is scheduled to testify at 9:30 this morning.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2023\">American Public Health Association<\/a> notes that &#8220;a uniform national standard from OSHA even more urgent&#8221; considering &#8220;the fact that 26 states have passed laws stripping state and local public health officials of the power to enforce public health mandates such as vaccination, quarantine, and masking. This puts public health decision making into the hands of elected officials instead of qualified, independent, science trained public health officials.&#8221; APHA is scheduled to testify at 9:30 on April 28.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/downloads.regulations.gov\/OSHA-2020-0004-2050\/attachment_1.pdf\">Dr. Robert Harrison<\/a>, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, responded to the tired old corporate criticism that OSHA standards are are bureaucratic, inflexible and unnecessary, pointing out that<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The California regulatory experience in health care has proven that OSHA standards can be sensible, clear and drive better performance on the ground for worker protection. The overall goal of an OSHA standard is not the \u201cgotcha\u201d principle, as it will always be true that there will never be enough OSHA workplace inspections to visit the tens of thousands of health\u00a0 care employers. Rather, the California OSHA standards lay out a clear roadmap with enough specificity that employers can and largely follow follow requirements to protect workers from harm. The most recent experience with the California [airborne transmissible disease standard] and COVID ETS standards has shown that OSHA standards are feasible, are well understood by both employers and employees and protect workers from infection and exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Harrison is scheduled to testify at 1:00 on April 28.<\/p>\n<h2>Those Who Oppose Safe Workplaces for Healthcare Workers<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/lettercomment\/2022-04-22-aha-urges-osha-not-finalize-covid-19-emergency-temporary-standard\">American Hospital Association<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2051\">Federation of <span class=\"il\">American<\/span> Hospitals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2051\">Washington State\u00a0<span class=\"il\">Hospital<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"il\">Association,\u00a0<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2055\">North Carolina Healthcare\u00a0<span class=\"il\">Association<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2066\"> Kaiser Permanente<\/a> oppose the standard or advocate for a weak standard.\u00a0 The AHA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aha.org\/news\/headline\/2022-04-22-aha-urges-osha-not-finalize-covid-19-emergency-temporary-standard\">asserts<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">With the constantly evolving, science-based CDC guidance and recommendations, CMS\u2019 vaccination requirement and existing OSHA general standards, we strongly believe that an inconsistent and overly strict OSHA COVID-19 health care standard is not necessary, would cause confusion and will ultimately lower hospital employees\u2019 morale and worsen unprecedented personnel shortages in hospitals,\u201d<\/p>\n<div>Far be it from me to doubt that the American Hospital Association (AHA) has its finger on the pulse of American health care workers, but given the devastating morale problems plaguing health care workers due to COVID-19 illnesses and deaths due to unsafe working conditions, do they really expect OSHA to believe that a standard designed to protect their lives will <em>lower<\/em> employees&#8217; morale?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>If there was a regulatory comment laugh test, the AHA would fail.<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Given the devastating morale problems plaguing health care workers due to COVID-19 illnesses and deaths due to unsafe working conditions, does the American Hospital Association really expect OSHA to believe that a standard designed to protect their lives will <em>lower<\/em> employees&#8217; morale?<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>The AHA is scheduled to testify at 1:00 this afternoon.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And, of course, also opposed the standard is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/comment\/OSHA-2020-0004-2053\">Coalition for Workplace Safety<\/a> (CWS), a front for the Chamber of Commerce, which has opposed every OSHA standard for the last 51 years. Yet somehow the republic survives.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The CWS bases its objections partially on procedural grounds because OSHA did not issued a formal proposal.\u00a0 The CWS discounts the clear language in the Occupational Safety and Health Act that states that the Emergency Temporary Standard issued last June &#8220;shall also serve as a proposed rule&#8221; for the hearing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And in a blatant misreading of the Supreme Court decision blocking OSHA&#8217;s Vaccinate or Mask standard last December, CWS attempts to argue that the Court prohibited OSHA from protecting healthcare workers from COVID when it stated that &#8220;While the Supreme Court recognized that &#8216;COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most'&#8221; And that the Court ruled OSHA was not allowed to regulate &#8220;the hazards of daily life\u2014simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Well, if &#8220;some workplaces,&#8221; doesn&#8217;t include healthcare, then it&#8217;s meaningless. And clearly &#8220;most Americans&#8221; who don&#8217;t work in health care do not face the same risk that healthcare worker face.\u00a0 In fact, the one bright spot in the Supreme Court&#8217;s otherwise <a href=\"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2022\/01\/13\/supremes-put-workers-at-risk\/\">deeply flawed opinion<\/a> was that it opened a window for OSHA to issue a COVID-19 standard targeting high risk industries.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But no one ever accused the Chamber of Commerce of using logic to oppose OSHA standards.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Don&#8217;t take my word for it. Watch the hearing yourself.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OSHA\u2019s rulemaking hearing for a permanent standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 begins this morning at 9:30 a.m. The hearing will be conducted remotely and you can view today&#8217;s hearing here.\u00a0 The hearing is currently scheduled to last 4 days: the rest of this week &#8212; April 27, 28, 29 and Monday, May 2. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>OSHA Healthcare Worker COVID-19 Hearing Starts Today - Confined Space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OSHA\u2019s rulemaking hearing for a permanent standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 begins this morning at 9:30 a.m.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2022\/04\/27\/osha-healthcare-worker-covid-19-hearing-starts-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OSHA Healthcare Worker COVID-19 Hearing Starts Today - 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