After reviewing these proposed amendments I was alarmed as an employee of the Commonwealth to discover that DOLI will once again blindly follow CDC recommendations that will have employers in the Commonwealth requiring their employees to wear a mask in the workplace. The distinction between the first mask mandate and this time around is that there is now a vaccine that is (and has been for months) widely available to any who choose to take it. Additionally but no less significant, add to that the fact that there are many who have developed natural immunity after contracting the Covid-19 virus. Despite having immunity to the Covid-19 virus, whether it be natural or through a vaccine, those individuals (now the majority of the population) will be forced soon to don a mask in the workplace if the DOLI proposed amendments to this standard are ratified. Further, I have yet to see a legitimate peer-reviewed scientific study that directly correlates a substantial reduction of Covid-19 cases/deaths to populations that incorporate mask mandates as part of their prophylactic efforts. To be sure, a cloth mask such as those that are typically donned to comply with Covid mask mandates would be ineffective in protecting an individual in a basic wood working shop from inhaling wood dust particles that are orders of magnitudes larger in size than the Covid-19 virus. 

The foundation for DOLI's proposal to implement mask mandates is based on the latest CDC recommendations. Unfortunately, one can no longer claim that as a result those recommendations are based on actual science. Once it was discovered that the CDC was consulting with the National Education Association (NEA) to determine whether or not teachers should return to the classroom instead of relying on legitimate peer reviewed scientific studies, they lost all credibility as an agency that was supposed to make objective recommendations that are unimpeded by political motivation.

Absent legitimate data that would clearly and objectively demonstrate that cloth masks significantly reduce the transmission of Covid-19, coupled with the clearly evident political motivation of the CDC to recommend mask mandates, it is clear to me that the primary and sole reason at this point in time to reimplement mask mandates in the workplace is for political theater. Masks on faces function to perpetuate the initial fear caused by the Covid pandemic, which in turn causes individuals to offer less resistance when asked to surrender individual freedoms under the guise of combating a public health emergency. 

Covid-19 is here to stay now, just like the flu virus and the cold virus before it. It is utter madness to suggest that mask mandates, social distancing, and shutdowns will continue until Covid-19 has been completely eradicated. Sadly that is exactly the path that we as a Commonwealth find ourselves on right now. I would therefore implore DOLI to turn a deaf ear to political pressures and demonstrate the fortitude needed to rely instead on objective science based evidence to draft amendment proposals to this Standard. Enough is enough - end the mask mandate permanently and allow individuals in the workforce to make health related decisions for themselves based on guidance received from their own medical doctor. If that means they choose to wear a mask in the workplace, so be it. If that means they opt to forgo a mask, that should be equally acceptable to the employer and supported by the DOLI standard.

Thank you for considering my comment.