Clearly a lot of effort went into the preparation of the proposed Emergency Temporary Standard/Emergency Regulation as it applies to COVID-19; and the Staff should be proud of their work.  From an employer's stand point, it would be helpful if the finished product included a "boiler plate", "fill in the blank" program for each Exposure Risk Level.  Employer compliance is more probable with standardized language and formatting; moreover, Compliance Inspections/Investigations can be completed quicker and more thoroughly. 

While it has been popular to recite the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention language that “SARS CoV-2” causes “COVID-19”, this statement is false.  COVID-19 is a set of clinical symptoms involving atypical pneumonia and other influenza-like maladies.  The vast majority of individuals >89% of individuals presenting with symptoms DO NOT TEST POSITIVE for SARS CoV-2 and as many as 95% of persons testing positive for SARS CoV-2 have no symptoms whatsoever.  When cannot be classified as having a “disease” if there is no disease.   As you know, in a test of incarcerated persons in Virginia, over 90% of the positive tests were associated with individuals with NO clinical presentation whatsoever.  Reciting lies does not make them true and leads to onerous and unconstitutional restraint of rights and trade.

As an employer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I refuse to participate in the acts of Domestic Terrorism that the Department of Labor is contemplating by reciting the propaganda of the CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY that gave rise to these actions.  As you limit public comments to 3,000 words, I am attaching, for your reference, the information that has been submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.  https://www.davidmartin.world/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BotW_Notes_04272020.pdf

I write to you today to support the passage of 16 VAC 25-220 by the Safety and Health Codes Board. During this pandemic, workers across the Commonwealth need enforceable protections for their own health and the public health at large. These emergent, common sense regulations are essential to both the critical workers and the vibrant business community of Virginia. I request that you pass the regulations on June 24, 2020 without hesitation.

Let businesses decide for themselves what measures to take, with education and guidance from health professionals, not mandates!

There should be no dictatorial mandate on business owners. Let them decide if they want to force masks or no-mask. 

Businesses are losing customers with forced mask wearing. This goes against HIPPA as well as the ADA. The state continues to enforce mandates to stiffle businesses and add another layer of bureaucracy. 
As a reminder this started out to not overwhelm hospitals now its  re-engineering of societal norms. The virus has a morbidity rate of 0.26% or 99.74% survival. Avg age of death 81 avg life span in US 78. Yet forced masks, social distancing, new normal all which dehumanize each and everyone of us in the name of pseudoscience. 
end all mandates, let businesses operate on their own and let adults be responsible. 

As more and mandates are placed on the people of Virginia the goal.post continualky move. We were told we need to get ahead of the curve. We did that weeks ago. Yet, after the decline we are still forced to yield to phases. We have the lowest numbers since this began. We did our part. It is now time for you to lift the unnecessary mandates that continually hurt all of Virginia. Take a look at your own data and start following what you said in the beginning. No more masks, no more social distancing and no more phases, release Virginia! 

Section 60 establishes requirements for employers with hazards or job tasks classified as medium exposure risk, in addition to the requirements of Sections 40, 70, and 80. It is not clear in the draft which parts of Section 80 (training) apply to employers who fall under Section 60.  Does Section 80(B) apply to all employers or does it only apply to employers who fall under Section 80(A)?  Additional clarity on the applicability of this section would be helpful. 

America has changed from a Theonomous culture, where God and natural law were imbedded in us, to now what people would like to think of as an Autonomous culture.  We have never been a Heteronomous culture,  meaning another gives the law. Shakes in Islam dictate what you wear, how you wash your hands and so on. Heteronomous culture has no place in America and mask mandates have no place in America.

Strongly concur with the proposed legislation. We need every precaution put into place prior to resuming normal operations!  What can be an easy preventable mistake beforehand makes all the common sense to me -- why pay a price later that did not need to happen to begin with?!

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy strongly supports the proposed emergency regulation on health and safety in the workplace during COVID-19 and thanks the Governor and the DOLI leadership for producing such a critically needed proposed regulation.

The regulations as proposed:

• Provide clear guidance to employers about their responsibilities and to employees about what they should expect.
• Recognize different levels of risk in different kinds of workplaces.
• Require extra preparedness for high and medium risk workplaces.
• Provide education and training for employers.
• Protect workers against retaliation.

Our only concerns are the following: 

• The section on sick leave is inadequate.  Unfortunately, a health and safety regulation cannot require employers to provide paid sick days to workers. (Virginia’s General Assembly should have passed a Paid Sick Day bill in the last session as advocated by VICPP. The bill passed the House, but not the Senate.) The proposed regulation begins with “To the extent feasible and permitted by law,” which essentially allows employers to say that it is not feasible to ensure flexible sick leave. The regulation should simply say that employers must ensure that workers have flexibility in using their sick time.  Because 41 percent of workers in Virginia have no paid sick time – no PTO or anything, even requiring flexibility is inadequate when two-fifths of workers have no paid sick time. VICPP believes that the Governor should issue an additional emergency regulation (or address the issue in the Special Session) requiring employers to provide paid sick time off to ensure that workers who are sick do not go to work.
• Extra resources should be given to DOLI to do outreach to workers in multiple languages. Reaching workers quickly about the regulation is critical. Although DOLI claims it has the internal resources to handle the education, given the need to reach out quickly and to multiple language groups all over the stand, the agency should be given extra outreach resources.
• Employers that provide housing, such as farms that employ migrant farmworkers, need requirements for safeguarding workers in the housing. If workers are housed by their employers in extremely close sleeping and cooking quarters, they could be infected in employer provided housing. Thus, additional regulations are needed for these employers.

We urge you to vote to approve the regulations as presented and work with the Governor and DOLI to support Paid Sick Days for all workers, give additional reources to DOLI and explore additional regulations for employer-provided housing. 

Let the local business leaders work with health care professionals to come up with a set of standard operating procedures for  conducting business during COVID. There should not be any mandatory regulations which occur fines. Businesses have been hurt enough economically. Let the businesses take ownership of creating their own standards  and following them.

I appreciate your focus on the health of our Commonwealth's workers, and all that you are doing to protect their health. I still have concerns about an insufficient number of sick days, providing all necessary information in multiple languages, and proper housing for residential workers when they are sick. 

I know some of these have expensive price tags, but employers will have to pick up some of that. These are difficult times but we don't want to ignore our lower income workers.

Thank you.

I strongly support the proposed emergency regulation and thank the Governor and the DOLI leadership for producing such a critically needed proposed regulation.

Positive Comments:  Overall, I am pleased with the proposed emergency regulations.  Requiring (and not just “suggesting”) employers protect workers is important.  In addition, the regulations:

• Provide clear guidance to employers about their responsibilities and to employees about what they should expect.
• Recognize different levels of risk in different kinds of workplaces.
• Require extra preparedness for high and medium risk workplaces.
• Provide education and training for employers.
• Protect workers against retaliation.Concerns:  I have the following concerns about the proposed regulation:
• The section on sick leave is inadequate.  Unfortunately, a health and safety regulation cannot require employers to provide paid sick days to workers.  (Virginia’s General Assembly should have passed a Paid Sick Day bill in the last session.  The bill passed the House, but not the Senate.)  The proposed regulation begins with “To the extent feasible and permitted by law,” that essentially allows employers to say that it is not feasible to ensure flexible sick leave.  The regulation should simply say that employers must ensure that workers have flexibility in using their sick time.  Because 41 percent of workers in Virginia have no paid sick time--no PTO or anything, even requiring flexibility is inadequate when two-fifths of workers have no paid sick time.  I believe that the Governor should issue an additional emergency regulation (or address the issue in the Special Session) requiring employers to provide paid sick time off to ensure that workers who are sick do not go to work.
• Extra resources should be given to DOLI to do outreach to workers in multiple languages.  Reaching workers quickly about the regulation is critical.  Although DOLI claims it has the internal resources to handle the education, given the need to reach out quickly and to multiple language groups all over the stand, the agency should be given extra outreach resources.
• Employers that provide housing, such as farms that employ migrant farmworkers, need requirements for safeguarding workers in the housing.  If workers are housed by their employers in extremely close sleeping and cooking quarters, they could be infected in employer-provided housing.  Thus, additional regulations are needed for these employers.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with all of you.

Stop hurting small businesses with mandates and enforcements we are already down revenue  to pay for state, city and our employees.  The numbers are trending down and the purpose for the initial 2 weeks stay at home order has long past all you are doing now is killing the economy in Virginia and if you think it's Trumps fault you better look in the mirror Governor.

Get off our backs!  Stop using this nothing-burger Coronavirus to strip away our rights: this is SUCH an abuse of us citizens by a tyrannical government.  Lift all mandates!  Let businesses decide for themselves what they want to do.  Respect Private Property Rights.  And lose the asinine 'Stay home' order too.  No mask mandates!  Masks are ridiculous for HEALTHY people and do more harm than good.  When does Gov. Northam intend to lift the State of Emergency?  After the election in November?  He sure is enjoying his unlimited power over our lives - just like a dictator.  

As a citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia I want all of Virginia, all businesses, government buildings and any other places where affairs are conducted open immediately without any mandates, limitations or restrictive rules such as occupancy numbers or requirements of face masks or other physical limitations put in place. We the people shall have full freedom as listed in the Bill of Rights of the United States of America immediately and for ever more. No more limitations are to be placed on the citizens for any reason at any time for ever more as long as the United States shall exist. 

Please provide emergency healthcare protections for these essential workers. This is vital for the health of all Virginians. I believe this legislation will make it easier for businesses to resume because it would reassure both laborers and consumers that the health and safety of workers is a high priority. All of us, owners, consumers, as well as laborers, are affected if Covid-19 keeps spreading. Thank you.

There should be no mask mandates...those of us with medical conditions still have to wear coverings  at work because section E of executive order 63 excludes employers and employees from the medical condition exceptions. This should not be forced. Northam is the executive branch of Virginia's government structure, and he is not a legislative body in or of himself. Therefore, the governor has no authority to create laws under the guise of a mandate citing non-compliance as a class I misdemeanor. Northam’s overreach is getting tiresome for all Virginians. 

Good morning!  I would like to take this time to share my situation. I am a teacher with FCPS and a mother of 5 children that attend FCPS schools. I currently teach 5th grade and my children are in grades (rising) 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10th. I will need the option of pupil placing my children in order to continue teaching. I have a masters in education from Marymount University and am pursuing a second masters in Blended and Online Learning in Schools from George Mason University. I have a son (my 4th grader) who has a genetic deletion on his 4th chromosome and requires special ed services in school. This also means that he is immunocompromised and extremely prone to respiratory illnesses due to having Pierre Robin sequence. I had an amazing experience teaching virtually this spring after all the connection kinks were worked out. I had a consistently large, engaged group of students and was able to maintain a safe social community at the same time. I feel that my own children thrived in distance learning and it even encouraged self-guided research in my older daughters. 

This all being said, I am very concerned about starting back with any sort of face to face schooling in the fall. Having just come out of a virtual learning classroom moving into a harsh, socially distant (impossible to do for kids, by the way) rule following “for the health of all” environment will most certainly be anxiety producing and not conducive to anything beneficial being taught and/or learned. I truly believe having as much synchronous online learning as we can is the right choice at this point in time. Face to face does not mean better education in this situation. And I believe that it may mean the opposite, even. I know the benefits of blended and online learning and have even sent multiple emails offering my assistance in curriculum and norms development, but have not  been offered any opportunities. I signed up for many FCPS offered opportunity groups to develop curriculum this summer and was not chosen for any of them. 

Thank you for hearing me, and working towards the best option for education in the fall. I appreciate all that you all do for us (parents, kids, and teachers). 

I am in support of these emergency guidelines. These should have be the least required for workers to feel safe in their work environment. Especially the workers in the jobs stated from medium risk to high risk. Face masks should be the absolute minimum require for people to enter a building or enclosed space. Some people seem to flagrantly ignoring the scientific data and the severe effects of COVID-19. The business of Virginia obviously need these guidelines AT A MINIMUM due to these people who don’t believe in a mask mandate. Workers should not have to be exposed to higher risks due to people in denial. 

Please do not mandate or attempt to enforce your intrusive safety measures on the businesses of Virginia. The Governor’s unconstitutional Executive Orders have already tanked the economy in the state. This would be an undue burden on the business owners who are already struggling. The measures that you have in mind are intrusive to the businesses and the people in the state. It’s already proven that the mask order is not only dangerous for the people who wear them, but all about control. Anyone not trained in clean procedure has no business wearing a mask full of germs around all day. Further, the WHO has finally stated that the general public should not wear them. The other requirements you have in mind will do very little to stop the spread of COVID. The 6 ft recommendations are not based on science. They are based on a whimsical number pulled out of the air by a student writing a term paper. Citizens need to be in charge of, and make good decisions for, their own health. Government agencies need to stay out of citizen health decisions. Put this to bed right now. We have had many virus scares over the years. None have resulted in these totalitarian measures. 

I support these standards and believe they will promote worker safety and safe workplaces.

My suggestion is to clarify the worker-provided personal protective equipment (PPE) provisions. As currently worded, employees are protected who provide their own gloves, face shields, masks or other PPE if such equipment is not provided by the employer. 

This creates the risk that an employer may provide low-grade face masks, then prohibit employees who wish to wear an N95 mask or true respirator from doing so, for fear that higher levels of protection may be unsightly or create anxiety on the part of customers.

My suggestion is to require all employers to provide face masks, face shields, and gloves, but to protect employees who wish to provide higher levels of PPE at their own expense.  Thus, if the employee believes that employer-provided equipment is inadequate, or does not address the employee’s risk level due to age or pre-existing condition, the employee may adopt more vigorous safety measures.

Thank you for your efforts in this essential rule-making.

Please clarify guidelines for community pools and "criminal" liability in Executive Order for HOAs

I believe that Virginia’s workers need emergency regulations related to COVID-19 protection to ensure their safety in the workplace. 

  I would ask you to put in place safeguards to protect Virginia workers from being exposed to Covid 19. I would encourage you to allow as much telework from home as possible. 

The original lockdown was to prevent overwhelming hospitals.  Covid has a very high recovery rate and there is no need to continue to violate our constitutional rights.  Masks are not needed unless someone wants to wear it.  Businesses are suffering.  Social distancing is a joke, given protests completely violated that.  Reopen VA COMPLETELY NOW!  These mandates are actions of a controlling dictatorship that will conveniently be lifted post Nov Election.

I am writing in support of the regulations in their entirety. These are critical for Virginians to feel safe at work at that they are not bringing home COVID to their families or the community. I see how a lack of regulations has devastated the families of those who work in poultry plants. I am from the Shenandoah Valley.

I am against a mandate of mask wearing. Please see my points below and end statement. Thank you for your time.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/

"The rates of all infection outcomes were highest in the cloth mask arm"

" An analysis by mask use showed ILI and laboratory-confirmed virus were significantly higher in the cloth masks group compared with the medical masks group. Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%."

--
Cloth masks are ineffective at preventing viral transmission.

2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32405162/?fbclid=IwAR25MaLMSvZWPhX9kcMHQQzH932ZMLoBG0e5Eqn69_OkYFvYvDxta3oJ1yA

"Conclusion: In summary, all the 455 contacts were excluded from SARS-CoV-2 infection and we conclude that the infectivity of some asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers might be weak."

--

If asymptomatic transmission is showing low/weak, masks aren't very necessary

3. https://www.roanoke.com/news/local/virginia-lags-46-states-in-checking-nursing-homes-for-infection-control/article_1e211dce-ed92-574d-8400-9423544fd3d0.html?fbclid=IwAR1Kabmdw1IqYkCWJJksuaghxxIpo-C4gPcLPLhexw3DRQBlFtXD2dbv1pc

"Only two states have done a worse job than Virginia in surveying skilled nursing homes to ensure that they have necessary infection-control measures in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the federal government.

"Virginia’s nursing homes reported that 847 residents and 419 caregivers were infected with the coronavirus. Of them, 307 residents and nine staff members died.

Only nursing homes are required to report to the federal government. As of Wednesday, 811 of Virginia’s 1,428 deaths were linked to long-term care outbreaks, according to health department data. It is not known how many occurred in assisted living facilities or group homes."

--
Your focus should be on the sick and elderly - NOT the young and healthy.

4. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150422121724.htm

"Despite more than half the world using cloth masks, global disease control guidelines, including those from the World Health Organisation, fail to clearly specify conditions of their use."

"These guidelines need to be updated to reflect the higher infection risk posed by cloth masks, as found in our study."

Professor MacIntyre said the study's results pointed to the effectiveness of medical masks, in addition to the harm caused by cloth masks."

--

Cloth masks can pose an actual danger to our health. And many cant wear them for medical reasons.

5. https://sexinfo.soc.ucsb.edu/article/bodily-autonomy

"Bodily autonomy is defined as the right to self governance over one’s own body without external influence or coercion. It is generally considered to be a fundamental human right."

Consent

Consent is an agreement between two or more individuals to partake in a specified activity. Consent does not have to be sexual but it does have to be voluntary, without outside forces or manipulations. Consent can be as easily revoked as it can be granted.

Legal Action

In the United States, the doctrine of bodily autonomy comes from the right to life, which is written in the Constitution. This is furthered by section one of the 14th Amendment where it reinforces that the state cannot deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process.
--

Gov. Northam. You DO NOT have my consent to force me to wear a mask on my face and you DO NOT have the right to deny my right to liberty.

You of all people should be supportive of bodily autonomy.

Say NO to a mask mandate. Let people and businesses choose.

Sincerely,
A concerned patriot

No more mandates, rules, regulations, etc. with regards to mask-wearing.  This entire situation has been blown completely out of control.   There has been enough economic and business damage, and when combined with limited availability of various supplies (with regards to masks and ALL OTHER SUPPLIES) at this point any further restriction and/or regulation being imposed on businesses is unconscionable.  

I strongly support the emergency regulations being considered by the Virginia Safety and Health Codes board to protect workers at their jobs against COVID-19.    

Thank you for proposing this regulation; I think the vast majority of us would benefit from wearing masks as we reopen the state and try to rebuild our lives. This disease is still killing people, and wearing masks feels like the least we could do for each other to minimize risk, especially as we begin to gather in large groups.

I strongly support the position of the Virginia Interfaith Center on Public Policy concerning worker safety.

Face masks are beneficial unless you actually READ the science which shows that cloth masks, in controlled clinical trials, HAVE NO EFFECT (save the psychological effects desired to demonstrate acquiescence). Dr. C. Raina MacIntyre has spent over a decade doing randomized trials and CANNOT, for the life of her and her team, get any trial to demonstrate benefits of masks on healthy OR infirm populations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/?fbclid=IwAR1RS-iCQhGMDEcpKVExSnWu-1YaMRqpfcvA4dvHAy3VgfTniB3x3Sgm6-0

And then there's this from Swiss Policy Research. Facts to prove why it's time to reopen Virginia....nay the entire country, NOW!

https://www.marktaliano.net/facts-about-covid-19-updated-june-2020-swiss-policy-research/?fbclid=IwAR2qVgAs11D8b1_IfOs4e5P8Y8bbluvSQD9biG557nnU7ccYwUdnPLlLvak

As others have said, the original goals of flattening the curve and preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed have been more than met.

I strongly support the emergency regulations proposed by the Virginia Safety and Health Board. If we jeopardize workers' safety and well-being in the work place by not requiring masks, social distancing, and other common sense precautions, we bring harm to their families if workers return home from work carrying this ever-spreading disease. 

Additionally, workers in Virginia need paid sick leave so they can "afford" to stay home when they are sick, especially in this pandemic.

I strongly support these common sense regulations for social distancing and mask wearing in Virginia workplaces.  As a public school teacher I think that schools need to be given special consideration, given the challenges of maintaining social distancing in that environment.  All staff and students (with the possible exception of our very youngest learners) need to be required to wear masks.  It is not enough for only staff to wear masks, as some school systems have proposed.  This forces teachers to assume all of the risk which is simply unfair, and certainly does not make us feel safe in returning to work.  Please put strong regulations in place so we don’t have to choose between our jobs and our safety.

The USA is a wealthy country with the resources to keep individuals & small businesses afloat until scientists develop COVID vaccines or treatments. Instead, corporations raid CARES Act bailout money & the billionaire kleptocrats make back room deals to line their pockets off the pandemic. The administration rejects ANY transparency about where OUR tax money has gone & spreads propaganda to convince citizens that PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES TO PROTECT PEOPLE FROM DEATH are an assault on “freedom.” Those whining about masks are weak & selfish. Wearing a mask is the LEAST I can do for fellow Americans who are more vulnerable than me. The wickedness of thinking ONLY of yourself is a perversion of patriotism & Christianity.

I've been following the various meetings and discussions about how to safely reopen schools, and the one thing everyone agrees on is that there really isn't a "best" way to do it.  Whatever happens, though, whenever students, teachers, and staff are back in schools, I believe it's vital for everyone to wear masks.  I've taught in elementary schools for 14 years, and sickness spreading throughout a classroom/the entire building is simply a fact of life in an environment like ours.  Since we know that it WILL happen, let's please take steps to minimize its extent and the risk to not only everyone in the building, but everyone who the people in the building come in contact with, by having everyone wear masks while we're there.

Each day we seem to get more and more information and research coming out about how to best prevent the spread of COVID-19. Just today I was reading new research about the decreased percentage of transfer when both parties, vs one person, and adding in distancing requirements come into play as well. Wow there is no guarantee that any of these measures will protect anyone won hundred percent, it should be up to the federal government or then our state to mandate that when workers are asked to return that they have a safe working environment. New research articles were also published today about the important end of good ventilation and the dangers of transmission in shared bathrooms. All of these topics are of great concern as we talk about opening up the schools in the fall. If teachers are required to endanger their own health as well as the health of their families, then there definitely needs to be a mandate of safety measures in our public schools.

ALL of Virginia’s workers need emergency regulations to ensure their safety in the workplace. I trust you will ensure that they are as protected as hospital workers and first responders are.  

The country has forgotten something important; COVID-19 is still here! Teachers and students are not prepared to return to school and maintain our health and safety.  Schools were originally closed for a reason. The rapid spread of COVID-19 caused millions of deaths across the globe and put all of us at risk. The risk has not changed. All we can do is change our approach to daily life and hope to protect ourselves.  At LEAST for the first quarter of the school year, we should STRONGLY consider continuing (and improving upon) virtual learning. Why put our children, and their teachers, at risk? We do not know enough about this virus to be so bold. Better safe, than sorry. 

Masks must be required of teachers, staff, and STUDENTS in order to keep everyone safe

This entire shutdown is unconstitutional. Rules like wear a mask and social distancing are put in place by health officials, who are unelected. Making businesses shut down is unconstitutional, as is telling people to stay home. It is time to bring class action law suits against those elected officials who are complicit in restricting our rights as citizens and destroying our economy, sue them both as individuals and as officials.

I believe it should go on the record, that the Virginia interfaith is a far left communist socialism supporting group. Much like Antifa, who are currently taking over our streets, defacing our monuments, vandalizing and terrorizing Our communities and businesses owners. Why wouldn’t they want to continue to terrorize us with mandatory masks, which they conveniently wore before covid-19, to cover their faces and escape justice. Piling on the hurt with economy crushing regulations forcing many businesses owners to close altogether.   Continuing to deny citizens their constitutional rights, and forcing more regulations upon them, for a virus that is disappearing, and has a over 99% survival rate begin with, and less than .04% chance of infection, is negligent and actionable by law. Around 75% of all cases have been in nursing homes. We can not allow the public’s rights to be ignored and denied for small group of susceptible individuals, who are already more susceptible to any virus outbreak. No more masks (which can do more harm than good), no more social distancing, no more killing businesses, let kids be kids and go to school.  Give us back the freedom that was unjustly stole From us in the first place!

It should also be noted that the Virginia interfaith group does not meet the requirements to claim 501-c3 status, they are a paid lobbyist group

https://www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org

http://give.org/charity-reviews/national/Civil-Rights/Virginia-Interfaith-Center-for-Public-Policy-in-Richmond-va-52736

https://www.vpap.org/lobbying/client/148165-va-interfaith-center-for-public-policy/

You (the State) are going to regulate us to death. No more. Enough. The "cure" is worse than the illness.

Recent studies have shown that wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of COVID. Moving into the next phase of reopening, it is even more imperative that we continue to protect ourselves. As an educator, I am concerned for my safety if I were to be put in a school environment and students were not required to wear masks. Studies have shown that masks are most effective in preventing sick people from spreading their infection to others. Given the fact that scientists have found it difficult to determine what percentage of COVID patients are asymptomatic (anywhere from 5-80%), masks are our best bet in curtailing the spread of infection.

Re:  Report on Proposed Emergency Regulations to Protect Workers Against COVID-19

I strongly support the proposed emergency regulations to protect Virginia workers and I also agree with the three comments to the regulations that have been provided by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.  The Virginia Safety and Health Board should vote in favor of the regulations and consider modifications based on the comments of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

I support all particulars of the Emergency Temporary Standard/ Emergency Regulation, Infectious Disease Prevention, SARS-CoV-2 Virus That Causes COVID-19, §16 VAC 25-220. People of Color are disproportionately represented in jobs that put them at risk for contracting COVID, and we must act to protect them, and all people who serve in jobs that place them at risk. 

I want to especially express my support for the mask mandate. We protect each other by wearing masks, and no one's civil liberties are the worse for it!