I am writing to show my support for the repeal of the Permanent Safety Standard for Infectious Disease Prevention:  SARS-CoV-2 / 16VAC25-220, pursuant to Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 6 signed on January 15, 2022.  A permanent standard is never the answer to an issue that is temporary and ever changing.   While probably well intentioned, the adoption of this standard did not reflect evolving health and safety guidelines.  Guidance by the CDC, OSHA, and VDH continues to evolve as evidenced by the recent revisions to recovery/return to work guidelines and the withdrawal of the federal Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard. The adoption of a permanent standard saddled Virginia’s employers with a standard that did not reflect the latest breakthroughs on the virus and vaccines. Employers should instead be free to work together with their employees without the need to interpret a permanent standard that may be outdated the moment it is published. This creates hazardous risks for employers and their employees.  In the future more measured approaches should be considered by this board when implementing such standards.

It is imperative that the vote on 2/16/2022 be upheld and this flawed standard be removed, IN ADDITION in the interim, guidance be given to Virginia employers on whether it will be continued to be enforced during this 30 day comment period.  Virginia employers would like to be able to inform their employees that they can freely remove the masks in the workplace.