California regulators reconsider mask standard for workers

The Associated Press ^ | June 9, 2021 | By DON THOMPSON

[Oldeconomybuyer]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s workplace regulators are set to again reconsider controversial masking rules designed to protect employees against the coronavirus — requirements that business organizations say will make it harder for them to operate when the state fully reopens its economy next week.

A “special meeting” of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board was hastily scheduled for Wednesday after State Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón sent a letter to the panel reiterating the state’s plans to follow federal guidance starting next Tuesday.

Aragón said the state will do away with virtually all social distancing requirements and drop the mask requirement for people who are vaccinated while “requiring face coverings for all unvaccinated individuals in indoor public settings and businesses.”

That policy conflicts with the board’s vote last week to allow workers to go maskless only if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The board will consider Aragón’s letter “and take action if appropriate,” board spokeswoman Erika Monterroza said.

[ChildOfThe60s]

They can’t let go of the power, can they? Plus they hate the private sector and want to make it as difficult as possible for a business to profitably survive.

It also really pisses them off that some people are intelligent enough to make their own choice about being injected with an experimental drug. Can’t have freedom of thought can we?

[ProudDeplorable]

They just can’t ween themselves off the face diaper.

[cuban leaf]

There’s nothing they don’t want to regulate. Fascists.

[lightman]

The Linuses and Lillians need their security blankets.

[Leep]

Well, it did allow otherwise powerless tools to get a little authoritarian high telling other people to put their masks on.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I think it’s the opposite. If I read it correctly they’re going to loosen up. I think Gavin made a phone call.

[TeddyRay]

The question is, how long will they make unvaccinated people wear the mask? It’s going to be a stigma. My work is doing that same thing.

[HotHunt]

There will always be a Fellowship of the Mask Wearers cult no matter what. I will go out on a limb and guess that it will comprise about 20-25% of the population, the same percentage as there are hard Left liberals.

But if they only require people in places of employment who have not been vaccinated to wear masks, then they are isolating and stamping a big red "M" on their foreheads to shame them in society for not getting the jab.

Let people who think the worthless masks stop the virus wear them to their heart's content but leave everybody else alone.

[Alberta's Child]

If it was a matter of power they’d just keep the mask requirement in place.

What’s happening here is that they’re trying to eliminate the stupid restrictions without making it obvious that their response to the whole COVID fiasco was idiotic from the start.

I think we are soon going to get to the point where someone in government will simply declare that COVID doesn’t exist anymore — like it was eradicated by the summer solstice or something. They realize they need to do this because a rational person has every reason to assume that a workplace or business establishment is an unsafe place as long as even a single person is wearing a face diaper there.

[lee martell]

I could swear I read that Governor Newsome has decided
we in California WILL NOT be re-opening the state on June 15.
Maybe I mis-heard. Or maybe the local businesses are in an active state of rebellion, and will keep on pressing forward, whether the Gov. likes it or not.
A lot of business owners are about to materially lose everything they’ve got. Let’s not even talk about the property owners who have been prevented from evicting the no-pay tenants.

[Freee-dame]

That is exactly what Obama did in the 2014 pandemic. In the summer he just said .... stop testing. We should’ve done this also last summer.

Now we are using a PCR test with 35, even 45, amplification cycles on people who are not “fully vaccinated”. If a person is fully vaccinated he will not be considered a case of Covid unless he tests positive with 28 amplifications or fewer AND is either hospitalized or dead.

Tell me the science behind this? COVID-19 is either a disease or is not a disease. These double standard regulations surely sound like politics, not science.

[Alberta's Child]

Whenever some jackass in my business circles tells me about “following the science” in any matter, I point out to them that I have an advanced degree and a professional license in a STEM field that required 30+ undergraduate credits in laboratory science and engineering courses. In my experience, the people who are most vocal about “science” in these conversations are the dumbest ones with the least exposure to anything remotely resembling science — typically lawyers, HR nitwits, “executive coaches,” and people in real estate.

[Freee-dame]

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