A new Emergency Temporary Standard from OSHA requires strict adherence to PPE requirements, and OSHA encourages employees to report their employer if violations are observed. Fines can be more than $136,000 per occurrence, but fully “vaccinated” employees with a Covid-shot are exempt from having to wear the PPE in non-Covid areas. Some doctors are saying that rather than risk the fines, it is easier for hospitals to mandate “vaccines” for all employees, contractors, and vendors.
The dates of issuance for these orders lend credence to this hypothesis. OSHA officially started its new Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on July 6. Idaho’s three largest healthcare systems issued their employee “vaccine” mandates on July 8. All employees, contractors, and vendors must be “vaccinated” by Sept. 1 or be fired.
The Catalyst: Biden’s Executive Order
OSHA started working on the ETS as a result of Joe Biden’s executive order of Jan. 21, 2021, directing OSHA to do more to protect workers from Covid-19. Some legal minds are questioning the authority of this action. A President’s executive orders are supposed to manage the operations of the federal government, not create new rules for the people or for businesses.
Therefore, by OSHA issuing its ETS, the structure of our Republic is at risk. Congress is supposed to create laws, the Executive branch is supposed to execute them. With the ETS, the Executive branch directed an Executive branch agency to create rules for private employers. This is the kind of behavior we’d expect to see in a dictatorship – not a country that has three separate and distinct branches of government, each with their own boundaries and responsibilities.
Operational Compliance: OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard
True Idaho News was given a slide deck used in a webinar (see below) which outlines the clinical, operational, and compliance impact for OSHA’s new ETS. The required PPE for healthcare workers is very specific (listed on Slides 13 and 14): respirators, gloves, gowns, and eye protection must be worn in accordance with OSHA standards (see below).
Slide 27 reminds all workers that they have the right to file a complaint and request an OSHA inspection at their workplace if they believe their employer is not following OSHA standards. OSHA also reserves the right to conduct random inspections.
Slide 26 outlines the penalties if someone is not wearing the required PPE:
- $13,653 per violation
- $136,532 per violation for repeated or willful violations
The vaccine exemption appears on Slide 15. This is where it says the Emergency Temporary Standard exempts anyone who has been fully “vaccinated” from having to follow the PPE requirements, and also exempts them from the physical distancing requirements and the physical barrier requirements.
Put another way. hospitals or clinics cannot be fined for PPE violations in non-Covid areas if everyone in their employ is fully vaccinated. Slide 15 reads as follows:
The ETS exempts fully vaccinated employees from the requirements for PPE, physical distancing, and physical barriers in well-defined areas where there is no reasonable expectation that any person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 will be present.
In order for an employer to be exempt from providing these controls in a well-defined area based on employees’ fully vaccinated status, the COVID-19 plan must include policies and procedures to determine employees’ vaccination status.
The second paragraph on Slide 15 refers to the requirement that every hospital or clinic have a Covid-19 Plan Safety Coordinator. The ETS states this person must implement the organization’s Covid-19 plan, monitor the effectiveness of the plan, be knowledgeable in infection control principles and practices as they apply to the workplace and employee job operations, and ensure compliance with all aspects of the organization’s Covid-19 plan.
Part of these responsibilities involves tracking which employees have not received vaccinations so they know who is required to wear PPE in non-Covid areas, and are therefore susceptible to committing an ETS violation. One doctor was concerned that this creates a divided workforce with “us vs. them” thinking, and may even devolve into Jim Crow-like separations.
It should be noted that at no place in the ETS are Covid-shots mandated. It is the opinion of several medical professionals who provided this information to True Idaho News that the reason Idaho’s hospitals are mandating vaccines has less to do with employee or patient safety than it does avoiding stiff penalties when over-vigilant employees report PPE violations.
This belief appears to be underscored by hospital employees who protest the mandates. One healthcare worker was recently photographed holding a sign that says, “We worked through the pandemic with no vaccine; now they want to fire us!”
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OSHA’s COVID-19 ETS Presentation:
