Occupational Health and Safety Scientists Association Lends Support to President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan

AIHA previously voiced its support for employers who find innovative ways to encourage vaccination among workers or develop workable programs to mandate vaccination in the workforce where warranted.

Protecting the health of workers and their communities by pushing back against the aggressive spread of COVID-19 is among the highest priorities for occupational and environmental health and safety scientists and professionals. As the association for these experts, AIHA supports the workplace health and safety components of President Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 Action Plan, including:

• Requiring all employers with 100+ employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly
• Requiring employers to provide paid time off to get vaccinated
• Requiring vaccinations for all federal workers and contractors that do business with the federal government
• Requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and other health care settings
• Calling on all states to adopt vaccine requirements for all school employees
• Providing additional funding to school districts for safe school reopening, including backfilling salaries and other funding withheld by states for implementing COVID-19 safety measures
• Getting students and school staff tested regularly

AIHA recently joined other organizations, representing the nation’s infection preventionists, epidemiologists, and infectious disease physicians and pharmacists, in calling upon state governors across the U.S. to set aside ideological differences and support important public health guidance that will save the lives of thousands of Americans during the current stage of the pandemic.

The second editions of AIHA’s Back to Work Safely Guidelines are now available online for use by small to mid-size businesses in 27 industry sectors. The free guidance documents, currently available in English with Spanish-language editions coming this fall, provide clear and actionable steps towards safe operations through prevention, early detection, and control of COVID-19. As cases once again surge, AIHA urges employers to follow every available precaution to protect the health and safety of their workers.

On Monday, September 13, 2021, AIHA is organizing a free webinar on healthy schools. This Townhall-style webinar brings together a panel of representatives from AIHA, APIC, BASIC, and EPA to address these issues, including:

• Mandatory vaccinations for all school employees
• Mandatory vaccinations for more vulnerable students
• Mandatory use of face masks for students
• Solutions to improve our nation’s aging schools’ indoor air quality

You can register for free here.