Submit comments to OSHA on the ETS - Here's How
Please submit comments people. Keep them short and sweet if you want. Be civil and state something reasonable which voices your opposition to the ETS. Use my draft comments below however you want.
Published in the Federal Register Here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...tion-and-testing-emergency-temporary-standard
Submit your comments by 12/6 here:
Regulations.gov
My comment I submitted is reproduced below. I had to shorten it a tiny bit to get under 5000 characters:
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The proposed ETS is unlawful, unscientific, a violation of fundamental human rights, medically ineffective, and an undue burden on businesses and the American economy.
It should be withdrawn completely and not replaced.
The proposed ETS is unlawful
The federal government cannot mandate the vaccines themselves, so the fed is using coercive tactics to threaten employers with fines or lack of business. These businesses then use coercion (threat of termination) to get employees vaccinated or tested against their free will.
The fed has authority only to issue vaccination guidelines. Vaccination requirements are set by the states. The proposed ETS is a de facto vaccination requirement masquerading as workplace safety rule.
The federal government has no power under the Constitution to force half the U.S. private sector workforce — 80 million workers or more — to be vaccinated against their will or endure repeated medical testing as a condition of simply earning a living.
The federal government lacks the legal authority to compel private employers to play the role of vaccine or COVID police, lack the police power to force private employees to undergo medical treatment, and may not ignore constitutional limits on its ability to regulate every aspect of our lives.
The proposed ETS is unscientific
The proposed ETS states, "OSHA has determined that many employees in the U.S. who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 face grave danger from exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the workplace." The working population which is the subject of this ETS is generally younger and healthier than those who are susceptible to COVID.
The data used to justify the ETS is not current or recent. The data needs to be recent to include the effects of variants, the effects of natural immunity (over half of workers have already been infected), and also the large number of employees who have now been vaccinated.
The proposed ETS effectively gives natural immunity zero significance, while treating all vaccines as if they are fully effective, regardless of when they were administered. As we know, vaccines attempt to mimic natural immunity, but don't quite achieve it, and they also lose considerable effectiveness over time and against variants. The Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccine has approximately zero effectiveness (3%) after six months, but is treated as if it is fully effective. Natural immunity is far superior and longer-lived than any of the vaccines alone.
The proposed ETS is a violation of fundamental human rights,
It is a fundamental human right for an individual to make their own medical decisions, including which medical diagnostic tests they consider necessary.
Everyone who wanted to get vaccinated has done so.
Forcing unvaccinated people to get vaccinated or tested, in order to protect the vaccinated, makes no sense. The vaccines are supposed to protect the vaccinated. If they don't work, then you can't possibly force them on the unvaccinated.
The proposed ETS is medically ineffective and possibly harmful
No vaccines or testing will ever stop the transmission of respiratory viruses which mutate quickly and have animal reservoirs. It is a proven fact and this pandemic simply confirms this.
Leaky vaccines, and the COVID vaccines are very leaky, can actually worsen pandemics due to anti-body dependent enhancement. This is well-known, and there are peer-reviewed publications discussing this likelihood for the current vaccines.
The proposed ETS is an undue burden on businesses and the American economy.
The costs of testing alone, considering the kit and administrative costs, is approximately $1.00 per hour per tested employee.
Test time is also 15 to 30 minutes per week. For non-exempt (hourly) employees who test at work, it's a significant business burden which is not addressed in the ETS.
Total costs are estimated by OSHA at $1.9B, or $7200 per firm. This estimate is ridiculously low. Losing one employee can easily exceed this low erroneous estimate, considering the costs of lost production, recruiting, interviewing, providing a competitive salary, relocation benefits, signing bonus, etc.
The cited reference (Barry et. al. November 2021) is very limited and not timely. In Washington State, for example, "About 3 percent of the state’s 63,000-plus employees left their jobs or were fired by October 18 for not complying with Inslee’s vaccine mandate. (That’s nearly 2,000 people.)" [
How Many Washington Workers Were Fired for Refusing to Get Vaccinated? ]
The magnitude and costs of employee turnover are severely underestimated.
Finally,
The Biden administration’s attempt to impose this unprecedented and unlawful federal medical mandate on the U.S. workforce without considering the public’s views is arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the evidence, and would produce a willfully ignorant rule. I demand my right to have my comments considered in a rule which affects my fundamental freedoms.
Thank you for your consideration,
James _. H____________
__________, VA