The public health community was alarmed by CDC’s May guidance indicating vaccinated people could stop wearing masks. On July 27th, CDC updated its guidance to advise that fully vaccinated people “wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission.”
In a “Request for Information to Improve Federal Scientific Integrity Policies,” the White House Office of Scientific and Technology Policy invites input until 5pm on July 28.
CDC guidance for vaccinated individuals, an OSHA emergency standard, and an FDA drug approval decision are bad news for public health and show that the Biden administration isn’t always living up to its stated commitments to equity and evidence-based policy.
In their new book On the Job: The Untold Story of Worker Centers and the New Fight for Wages, Dignity, and Health (New Press, 2021), Celeste Monforton and Jane M. Von Bergen tell the stories of workers who band together and fight for safer and more humane workplaces in which they’re paid for the hours they work.
On January 21, President Biden signed an executive order directing OSHA to consider issuing an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from COVID-19, with a March 15 deadline. More than a month later, workers are still waiting.
We’re hearing more and more about a post-pandemic new normal. But unless we, as a nation, take stronger actions to protect workers, the new normal won’t be different from the old one, with the most vulnerable workers still at the most risk of injury and death.
The determinant of health that likely has the greatest impact on public health and health equity may be the one most public health professionals have the least to say: the ideological direction of the country.
A week after taking the oath of office, President Biden signed a sweeping presidential memorandum that takes several welcome steps to ensure government scientists can do their jobs without political interference. A week after that, Representative Paul Tonko reintroduced the Scientific Integrity Act, which would enshrine into law many of the safeguards that Biden’s memorandum specifies.
With a statement in his inaugural address and new executive orders, President Biden shows that he values science in government.
Today, we are releasing the 9th edition of The Year in U.S. Occupational Health and Safety which recaps some of the most significant policy changes, advocacy activities, journalism and research over the last year.