Tennessee lawmakers are brushing off federal rules meant to stop COVID from spreading in health care facilities. A committee has ordered the state’s inspectors to abandon emergency safety protocols.
These rules, adopted Aug. 24, apply to hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices. They dictate where facilities should require masking, testing and distancing. But on Monday, some Republican lawmakers mocked the safety regulations, questioning representatives from the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration about the effectiveness of the rules.
“Scientifically, can you explain how a face shield — which allows air to enter all around the face — is going to protect the individual?” asked state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, who chairs the Government Operations Committee. Face shields are not allowed by the rules in place of masking, unless seeing someone’s mouth is important, like talking to a deaf patient.
Beyond dismissing the science, many bristle at being told how to regulate Tennessee workplaces. State Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, says she wants the rules gone, even if it means losing federal money.
“We’ve got to get to sensibilities and not be chasing the dollar,” she said. “There’s a time when you’ve sold your soul.”
Bowling and others note that TOSHA will be the same agency tasked with enforcing a federal vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 people, once those rules are finalized.
TOSHA officials say if they refuse to enforce the rules, in all likelihood, the federal OSHA would just take over for them.
Technically, it’s TOSHA that will have to pull out of the emergency rules (read here). On Monday, the Government Operations Committee voted to give the rules a “negative recommendation” and asked the agency to come back Tuesday with a response about how it will move forward.
The panel, made up Senate and House members, has led the state’s political resistance to several science-based COVID measures, including a flap over promoting teen vaccinations.
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