Most of us are aware that partying, closely packed bars, beaches, rallies and even churches have sown novel coronavirus viral seeds. We believe warehouses and heavy manufacturing have reduced exposure risks with varying levels of success. We all know that meat and poultry processing plants, with workers pressed shoulder to shoulder and often living in barracks or small bedrooms with fellow workers, have been hotbeds of COVID-19 infections. We’ve come to believe that open office spaces are much easier to control, to make safe and secure. We just may have misjudged that reality. Particularly in California, increasing numbers of infections are being traced to open offices.
While most passenger aircraft can recycle all the cabin air every three minutes, except when they shut down if they are stalled on the tarmac because of a delay, very few offices have HVAC systems that are even focused on a speedy refreshing of air within an office space. Even fewer deploy the kinds of HEPA filters that effectively filter out the virus found on most commercial jets. As the infection skyrocket here in Los Angeles, many now being traced to office workers, we just received an order to shut down “non-essential” offices. California is at least trying. There are still GOP governors in hot spot states unwilling to do what it takes to control this explosive new outbreak.
Generally speaking, the Trump administration has been downright hostile to enforcing any regulations against any businesses. The mantra to open everything, everywhere to deliver economic success that would support a second Trump term is embedded in virtually every federal policy these days. From pollution to workplace safety. Unions have been forced to take this lackadaisical federal policy to court simply to protect their members from this malaise: “More than three years after taking office, the administration has never filled the job running the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is charged with enforcing workplace safety laws. The $560 million-a-year agency, whose estimated 2,000 inspectors performed 32,020 on-site inspections in 2018, spent months not doing any in-person inspections related to coronavirus, other than in hospitals, said Rebecca Reindel, director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO.
“OSHA has issued only one citation for violations of workplace safety laws related to Covid-19, according to its own testimony to Congress, to a Georgia nursing home that failed to report that a staffer had been hospitalized. The lone citation is despite well-documented shortages of required personal protective equipment at hospitals and Covid-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants.
“The dispute has spilled into the courts, as the full U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia is being asked by the AFL-CIO to consider an appeal of a June decision by a court panel siding with OSHA and denying the labor federation’s request for a rule that gives employers specific guidelines for dealing with Covid-19… ‘We know 125,000 people have died, and we know the workplace is a major source of exposure,’ said Reindel. ‘Besides, it’s the only place most people are going.’″ CNBC.com, July 10th.
What we now know is that since COVID-19 is a respiratory disorder; what’s in the air just might be more important than what’s on the surface. Sure, touch an infected surface and bring that toxin to your face with a simple touch or itch-scratching and wham… infection city. But without exceptionally expensive HVAC retrofitting, there is a real question whether sealed office space can be made safe at all. Senior managers are beginning to ask the right questions, even beginning to slow the process of bringing back office workers. Work from home continues to be viable for most office work.
“U.S. companies are raising new questions about how they can make workplaces safe after the world’s top public health agency acknowledged the risk that tiny airborne droplets of the novel coronavirus may contribute to its spread, industry healthcare consultants said.
“About two weeks ago [early July], the World Health Organization called for more scientific study into airborne transmission of COVID-19. The move raised awareness of an issue excluded from U.S. government back-to-work guidelines, adding to the challenge of keeping people safe in offices, stores and work sites, these consultants said.
“Many companies devised strategies based on WHO guidance that large respiratory droplets of the virus could infect people when first emitted and after they landed on surfaces. Now the concern over infection is focused on the idea that tiny droplets could linger in the air for hours…
“The slowdown comes as some employers, such as Texas energy companies Halliburton Co and Chevron Corp, had already begun delaying plans to bring back office workers due to rising coronavirus cases… Employers are asking whether public health recommendations that individuals remain 6 feet apart and wear masks to limit transmission through large droplets are enough.” Thompson Reuters, July 20th. Apparently, no one told those infectious droplets not to go around partitions or hover around for hours. And exactly how do you tell your landlord to spend a fortune upgrading the HVAC system to exchange and filter the air efficiently? Don’t count on the Trump administration for any help in this area.
All of this faces us now. But after a possible near-term lull, it now seems all but certain that we will face that dreaded second wave, during traditional flu season, by the end of the year. “Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said the coming fall and winter months may be one of the toughest in the country's public health history… ‘I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 is probably going to be one of the most difficult times that we've experienced in American public health’ he said, as COVID-19 and the flu will coincide.” Newsweek, July 15th. It not as if no one cares. But it just might be that no one who can make a difference at the federal level cares enough.
I’m Peter Dekom, and number and
facts repeatedly confirm how badly the United States is handling this pandemic.
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