Advocacy groups say Biden Administration’s new health care-only COVID standard is not enough

Workers and workplace advocates held rallies in around the country this week calling for stronger and more enforceable protections from COVID-19. The events came Tuesday, one day before the U.S. passed 600,000 deaths from the virus, and five days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a long-awaited Emergency Temporary Standard for workplaces that is limited only to healthcare employees.

Unlike previous OSHA guidelines for workplace safety, an Emergency Temporary Standard has the force of law, with strengthened enforcement. But the overdue new standard applies only to the healthcare sector, effectively leaving tens of millions of U.S. workers operating in a status-quo situation. The events on Tuesday marked the three-month anniversary of a deadline President Biden set to issue safety measures needed to protect all of the nation’s workers from COVID-19.  

“Health care workers who saved our lives are finally getting the nationwide protections they deserve to reduce the risk of getting exposed while at work,” Al Vega, director of policy and programs for the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health and board president of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement.