What happened: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
changed its COVID-19 reporting requirements such that severe COVID-19 cases at
workplaces are less likely to get reported.
Why it matters: OSHA uses this data to identify the most hazardous
workplaces in the country, which allows the agency to take action to protect
workers from further harm. By changing the reporting requirements in a way that
is likely to underestimate the toll of COVID-19 in workplaces, OSHA is
preventing decisionmakers from carrying out measures that protect workers and
their communities from the threat of a deadly disease.
On September 30, 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
changed how it required companies to report severe COVID-19 cases in a way that
will likely
undercount
the number of severe COVID-19 cases at workplaces. In a news
release, OSHA
announced that it had changed the COVID-19 reporting requirements and had
updated its
FAQ. Companies
only need to report a severe COVID-19 case to OSHA if the worker’s in-patient
hospitalization occurred 24 hours after the worker caught the novel coronavirus
at their workplace. Therefore, if an employer learns about a worker who was
hospitalized due COVID-19 because of an activity related to work, they do not
need to report it to OSHA unless the employer had evidence that the worker was
exposed to the novel coronavirus at work 24 hours before they were hospitalized.
This requirement is not supported by best available science on COVID-19.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC),
the median time from exposure to symptom onset for COVID-19 is four to five
days, and some COVID-19 patients can rapidly deteriorate and may need
hospitalization about one week after symptom onset. Additionally, evidence
suggests that it is incredibly difficult to track down the exact date of
exposure to the novel
coronavirus after someone tests positive because of recall bias and other
sources of uncertainty.
The collection of data on work-related injuries and illnesses has long been
considered a major duty
of the Department of Labor and OSHA. Both the Occupational Safety and Health Act
of 1970 and Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1904 (29 CFR Part
1904) require that employers prepare and maintain records of occupational
injuries and illnesses and report these data to the government.
In 2014, OSHA issued a rule
which required that all employers that fall under OSHA’s purview must report all
work-related deaths and all severe work-related injuries and illnesses. Severe
injuries and illnesses were defined as in-patient hospitalizations, amputations,
and losses of an eye. In May 2020, OSHA issued a
memo
stating that this 2014 rule also applied to work-related COVID-19
hospitalizations and deaths. In late May, OSHA cited a Georgia nursing
home
for failing to notify the agency within 24 hours of six health care workers
becoming hospitalized due to COVID-19. However, the citation to the Georgia
nursing home was
withdrawn on
September 30 as result of OSHA’s new reinterpretation of the reporting
requirements.
This is not first time during the pandemic that OSHA has failed to enforce
work-related COVID-19 data collection. In April 2020, OSHA issued
guidance
that allowed all companies, except those with health care and frontline workers,
to stop reporting COVID-19 cases that occurred among their workers, an action we
previously considered to be an attack on science.
According to David
Michaels,
who was the head of OSHA during the Obama administration, OSHA’s
reinterpretation of the 2014 reporting regulation will undermine the agency’s
ability to respond quickly and effectively to workplace outbreaks of COVID-19
and represents a rejection of a policy that sheds light on where severe COVID-19
outbreaks are occurring. OSHA’s action has undermined its mission
statement to “ensure safe and healthful working
conditions for working men and women” since the agency can no longer use data to
identify workplaces that are prone to severe COVID-19 outbreaks. COVID-19 is a
deadly and highly contagious disease that is causing a massive amount of deaths
and hospitalizations. OSHA’s action has taken away an important source of data
that can be used to create evidence-based measures to combat this deadly disease
and protect workers.