A KHN investigation found that at least 35 healthcare workers died after Osha received safety complaints about their workplaces. Yet by 21 June, the agency had quietly closed almost all of those complaints, and none of them led to a citation or a fine. About 1,300 of the healthcare-related Covid-19 complaints remain open and about 275 fatality investigations are continuing, according to public records.
The complaint logs, which have been made public, show thousands of desperate pleas from workers seeking better protective gear for their hospitals, medical offices and nursing homes.
The quick closure of complaints underscores the Trump administration’s hands-off approach to oversight, said the former Osha official Deborah Berkowitz. Instead of cracking down, the agency simply sent letters reminding employers to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, said Berkowitz, now a director at the National Employment Law Project.
Source: Health workers filed more than 4,000 complaints about protective gear. Some still died | US news | The Guardian
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