OSHA COVID-19 Reg May Drive More Vaccine Mandates

By Gary Evans, Medical Writer

Federal occupational health officials are being blasted for their Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to protect healthcare workers form COVID-19, particularly as more vaccination mandates across the country negate the need for much of the regulation.

“I hope there is an understanding that when you get people vaccinated some of these ETS requirements are not going to make sense,” says Connie Steed, MSN, RN, CIC, director of infection prevention and control at Prisma Health in Greenville, SC. ‘I think this pushes employers to require vaccine’

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s ETS was published in the Federal Register on June 21, 2021.

Occupational Exposure to COVID-19; Emergency Temporary Standard

That means that employers must comply with most provisions within 14 days, but can take up to 30 days for requirements involving physical barriers, ventilation, and training. The ETS is in effect for six months, and OSHA requested comments by July 21, 2021 on whether it should become a final rule after that period.

OSHA requires that hospitals and other facilities under the regulation “provide reasonable time and paid leave for vaccinations and vaccine side effects.” Beyond that, for the most part, those vaccinated must essentially follow the OSHA regulations as if they were not immunized.

“I’m concerned about this standard,” Steed says. “I believe employees have a right to be protected. Are we overdoing it a little bit? Because this is a droplet, aerosol disease. Are we going to keep people in masks, socially distanced, forever? That doesn’t make sense to me. To be honest with you, requiring COVID vaccine for employees is the only reasonable way for organizations to survive.”

While pointing out that approximately a quarter of healthcare workers have not yet completed COVID-19 vaccination – and it is duty bound to protect them -- OSHA left the door open for revisions as the pandemic continues and more people are vaccinated.

“OSHA will continue to monitor trends in COVID-19 infections and deaths as more of the workforce and the general population become vaccinated and the pandemic continues to evolve,” the ETS states.

In other words, widespread mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers – which is rapidly increasing nationally -- could be a game changer, unless OSHA wants to make the questionable argument that employees in hospitals with fully immunized staff still meet the “grave danger” threshold required for an ETS.

For more on this story see the next issue of Hospital Infection Control & Prevention.