We Need OSHA to Protect Workers During the COVID-19 Outbreak

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has been MIA during the COVID-19 outbreak and has failed to ensure employers are adequately protecting workers. Weakened CDC recommendations have taken precedence over more protective, enforceable OSHA standards. OSHA has not even appeared at any of President Trump's coronavirus press briefings. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia and President Donald Trump's political appointees at the Labor Department have all but abandoned America's workers at a time of crisis.

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to sweep through our communities, workers are being faced with entirely new challenges and daily risks that endanger themselves, their families, and their communities. In a column this week, Dr. David Michaels, who ran federal OSHA from 2009 to 2017, speaks out about OSHA's lack of response during this federal emergency and describes all the ways in which OSHA must step up and protect workers.

We must demand the Trump administration and Secretary of Labor Scalia allow OSHA to do its job. OSHA must issue an Emergency Temporary Standard for Infectious Diseases to safeguard the nation's healthcare workers, first responders, and other workers whose lives are on the line before one more worker dies.

To read the full article by Dr. David Michaels, click here.