As the vaccine controversy raged on, the number of fatalities from COVID-19 quietly began to rise as the summer wound down. James Marchese talks about OSHA’s regulations and their effect on the country.
The vaccine against the coronavirus has been a controversial topic since Day One. There’s been a lot of talk about the importance of public health weighed against that of personal freedoms.
Today, though, many public officials are losing patience with the debate, particularly when so many lives are on the line. It’s led to the issuance of new objectives and regulations. James Marchese discusses the more aggressive tactics being used and why they’re necessary to ensure the economy stays on track.
Suspension of OSHA Enforcement
James Marchese remarked that the order from the federal administration was for all employers with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers were either vaccinated or tested weekly. Should employers fail to do so, they could be fined up to $14,000 per violation.
The regulation also mandated that employers cover paid time off to both get the vaccine and recover from any potential side effects. Around the same time, Biden eliminated the option of weekly testing for the majority of federal employees. These orders came just about a year after the vaccine debuted.
While many in the country were happy that these steps were taken to eliminate unnecessary illness and death, the other side was incensed at the alleged overreach. A federal court eventually reaffirmed an original temporary stoppage on these orders.
Due to the court’s ruling, OSHA recently announced that it wouldn’t enforce the regulations from the federal administration. James Marchese says that this is a clear indication of the power of pushback in the country, despite the risk for additional deaths from a lack of mandates.
James Marchese on Protecting the Country
Ultimately, the vaccine is meant to protect. It not only insulates people from a potentially deadly virus, it also ensures that the economy can keep moving. Every new outbreak presents a new chance for production to falter and the country’s anxieties to rise.
James Marchese explains that the mandates were designed to affect more than 80 million workers and that the mandates will have a positive net impact — despite OSHA’s lack of enforcement. To that end, the organization issued a statement that expressed confidence in its authority to protect workers in a state of emergency.
The tide of vaccinated people has been slowly rising, even if the pace isn’t on par with where officials need it to be. As more attention is paid to the benefits of vaccines (and the potential consequences of failing to get one), Marchese believes that we will start to see the rewards from these efforts.