Prepare Worker Safety Rule for Next Pandemic Now, Advocates Say

Broad federal and state rules to protect workers from future infectious diseases are a necessary complement to workplace safety regulations specific to Covid-19, some advocates say.

“If anybody thinks this pandemic is the last one that we’re going to experience, I think they’re not living in the real world,” said John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a March 3 discussion with reporters during the National Safety Council Congress.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is considering whether to advance an emergency ...