The executive order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety requires OSHA to release guidance within two weeks to employers on workplace safety during the pandemic and to evaluate whether any emergency temporary standards are needed.
The agency has until March 15 to issue emergency standards, which could include mask-wearing in the work place.
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The order also requires a review of OSHA’s enforcement efforts related to COVID-19 and requires the administration to identify what changes could be made to protect workers.
Biden’s order also directs the Labor Department to work with the Energy, Agriculture, Transportation, and Health and Human Services departments to explore ways to protect other classes of workers. It asks the Mine Safety and Health Administration to explore emergency temporary standards on COVID-19 for coal and metal or non-metal mines.
IV. Record Thine COVID Data
Executive Order on Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats
This order is all about data. While it doesn’t go into much detail, it does stress the president’s desire to enhance data collection around the virus presumably infections, contact tracing, and the like. It calls for a “stronger public health infrastructure” to help “prevent, detect, and respond to future biological threats” but does not outline what that means.
It’s possible that under this order the federal government may explore a digital tracking system or even a national database to aid in what it calls “collaboration capabilities.”