ABSTRACT
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 applicable to private sector employers with 100 or more employees. Among other things, the ETS required employers either to mandate employee vaccination or weekly testing and wearing masks.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Occupational Health , COVID-19/prevention & control , Environmental Health , Humans , United States/epidemiology , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration , VaccinationABSTRACT
In the face of a global pandemic posing unprecedented risks to worker health, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the agency charged with protecting workers from occupational illness, has floundered. Its efforts to protect workers have been too little, too late, poorly designed, and entangled in legal controversy. Two years into a pandemic that has posed the greatest threat to worker health in our lifetimes, OSHA has adopted no effective, COVID-19-specific protections for workers. This article chronicles OSHA's efforts and the response of the courts.