Dear Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board,
As a small business owner with over 200 employees, I ask you to consider repealing the Virginia Permanent Standard for Infectious Disease Prevention. As you know, most all businesses have suffered debilitating interruption from the Covid 19 virus. We have tried to protect our employees by following the CDC and OSHA guidelines. We have also tried to survive the closing of our stores and the loss of income. When the Virginia Permanent Standard for Infectious Disease Prevention was enacted, it created a very burdensome amount of paperwork and opened up liability for our small company. At the time of the passage of the Standard, we were financially crippled, had a skeleton crew, employee morale was at its lowest, and then had to navigate and write manuals mandated by this Standard. Worst yet, this Standard passed a mechanism for our employees to become government agents and report back when rules were not followed. It has added more confusion to the already very confusing guidance from our government officials on navigating this virus. I believe that Virginia's business and employees have endured enough. With the Virus numbers falling quickly along with hospitalizations and deaths, we must start to move toward a more normal way of life and learn to live with this virus. We will continue to follow the guidelines of OSHA and the CDC, but the Virginia Permanent Standard needs to be repealed and retired. I appreciate your consideration of this request, John S. Walker