OSHA ‘Missing In Action’ As Coronavirus Threatens U.S. Workers | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

David Michaels, former OSHA administrator, talks with Rachel Maddow about the lack of response from OSHA under the Trump administration to the danger posed to workers by the spread of the coronavirus. Aired on 05/26/2020.
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OSHA 'Missing In Action' As Coronavirus Threatens U.S. Workers | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

60 comments

    1. @Adam Rutter ​ I don’t think you have any facts to back that up. 38k is a falacious number. Also, only 2 of the things you listed are diseases. You are conflating multiple deaths categories.
      HIV over 40 years has killed roughly 7k per year with deaths in the last decade closer to 1k per year.
      The flu kills 20-50k people on any given flu season (Oct 1-April 30… 7 months). The number of infections is much higher with ranges from 9.3 million to 35 million. The 2017-18 season was an outlier with 61k death but with over 44 million cases (<.14% mortality rate). Average rate of deaths per month runs from 3-7k for the flu on average. Even taking the flu in 17-18 in account, that's still less than 9k per month. COVID-19 in 3 months has killed 100k people of 1.7 million confirmed infections. That is an average of over 33k deaths per month or 1,000 people a day. There is evidence that this number is a conservative one too and is underestimated by 2x-10x as is the number of infections. And we don't know if this virus is seasonal or will continue to spread throughout the year. It's not an influenza strain, it is a coronavirus strain (Coronavirus 2019). This number will likely grow as post-mortem testing and better testing becomes more widely available (Still having people around me with the symptomology who can't get tested in a timely manner). The number of infections will be better understood as the antibody tests get better and we can conduct a sweep test of the US to find out the true numbers. This is where comparing the 2 different types of infections is inherently wrong. Based on current data, the infection to death rate for influenza is around .1-.14% or 10-14 deaths in 10000 cases. So far, the number of cases to deaths in COVID19 are closer to 5.88% in the US or 588 of 10000 people infected. That's currently 40-60 times deadlier than the influenza seasonal death rate. **the COVID19 numbers will definitely change as we can better test and identify cases... likely to drop those numbers for COVID closer to 1-2%. Still that's 100-200 deaths per 10000. Way worse than the flu by comparison.

    2. Sounds about like 2.5-3 years of Congress on this Russia Collusion thingy. That didn’t age so well and now they forget all about that. Orange Man Bad. TRUMP 2020

    3. @Adam Rutter so facts and figures… too much to read or too hard to comprehend. FYI TLDR: Coronavirus 10-50x more deadly than the flu… The flu has a vaccine that provides good protection against the virus (if they guess the 2-3 strains correctly)… There is no vaccination for COVID yet… Science… it’s your friend…

      Good luck… I’ve had it… you don’t want this one. WAY worse than any flu I’ve ever had… 2.5 months to recover my strength again. The flu is 3-7 days long and this virus runs 2-6 weeks of symptoms. Pray you don’t get it.

    1. @Jason Jones Bills to pay and family members we’d rather not get infected by morons getting drunk in crowded bars.

  1. Ha ha. I watch the smaller contractors and they aren’t following the guidelines. The big contractors are. People are not following these guidelines and the Republicans are encouraging them not to. It’s sickening.

    1. People…not necessarily one in particular. People are stupid, greedy, and selfish. If People has a brain, they would stay home for the next 6 months or so.

    2. @David Adams thank you.i just wish people would take it serious and maybe they won’t go through the same thing my cousin did!

  2. I didn’t even know osha existed. Now that the cat is out of the bag, Eric Cartman will defund the entire org within a month.

  3. OSHA have been taking peoples wages my whole life, and the first time they are really needed they sit there twiddling their thumbs. CROOKS !

    1. @John Underwood Still, they run on tax money and I’ve never seen them. At least Cal-OSHA showed up.

    2. mine like every other federal department under this administration, their budgets have been gutted and vacated jobs are never refilled. From the state department on down, you just never realize it until their expertise is needed and you discover there is no one left

    3. @Just another day in the salt mine You did notice the spelling? Cal-“OSHA”. California has fully supplanted the Federal role in worker safety per agreement and compliance with statute. The role that OSHA plays as a federal agency is fulfilled by a state agency that administers and meets or exceeds the performance requirements set forth in the federal statutes. Thus, Federal OSHA is not walking the job sites in CA.

  4. You can tell Mr. Michaels came ready because he gave Rachel all of 5 seconds to intro him before he dived in head first to tell it exactly how it is about what is NOT being done to help and support our “essential” workers and our vulnerable populations.

  5. Worst part these workers are designated Essential but safety is not essential this is worker assassination by the Government and Industry

    1. Shouldn’t these Workers have enough mindset to Protect Themselves or if they don’t feel safe going to work then they shouldn’t go. How hard is that to understand?

    2. Trouble is most employers will terminate you especially is your declared an essential worker and you stand up for your Rights to a safe workplace the responsibility is often on you to prove it often even if you win you loose because your labelled a trouble maker if standing up for your rights was so easy they would not have to make laws were is Osha
      ????

  6. Trump fires anyone who imposes limits or questions his authority which is even more reason to vote him out!

  7. So sad. The pace the US is now imploding is mind boggling. Wish you all the best from the Netherlands.

  8. That article and subsequent coverage maybe enough to largely close OSHA under the Trump administration. I am from outside of the US, have no clue what our equivalent here is (or even if there is a true equivalent) but do know if there are questions by workers regards safety OSHA documents are often sought out and reviewed. The difficulty is, from the current administrations view, is that OSHA is one of the few agencies that can enact enforceable guidelines. Look what has happened to the EPA as prime example from several years ago until now because they came onto the administrations radar sooner, CDC is another with documented evidence as to how their guidelines have changed from “demands to conform” to “suggestions of best practice” within the last 6 weeks. There is a pattern here.

    1. SIR : O.S.H.A. LAW PROMOTED BY DEMOCRATS ……STUDIES WERE DONE IN THE 50’s of SWEDENS SAFETY SYSTEM AT WORKPLACE .

    2. You can include the FAA in your list. The FAA stood back and allowed Boeing to “regulate itself” in it’s redesign of the MAX 737. We COULD ask all the people who were on the two Boeing planes that fell out of the sky in Malaysia what THEY feel about Governmental Safety Regulations and their enforcement – but they’re all DEAD.

    1. dude this has been going on loooooooooooooooooong before trump. Now all of a sudden you people care smfh

    2. You know whats the funniest part , republicans are forcing American workers to go and work in meat processing plant owned by China and exporting pork to China at same time when US grocery stores have a shortage … joke is that people will still vote for republicans and claim they are for workers .

  9. 160 days until the Trumpocalypse is purged from the White House! Voting will remove the corrupt Яepublicans from office. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

    1. If ONLY the election was free and fair, it is NOT. It has been corrupted and it will be again. If DT was worried at all about the election, it would be obvious. The fact that he remains solidly “certain” of his re-election, is proof that the fix is already IN. We are sooo fkd, again. Watch what happens, you won’t believe it is possible

    1. MILLIONS OF LAWSUITS HAVE ALREADY BEEN FILED…FROM PEOPLE THEIR LOVED ONES HAVE DIED….OR ALMOST DIED…..

  10. Translation, kissing up to trump’s corporate backers. Think again if you think trump cares about the common man. He has no clue.

  11. If reporters were actually capturing images of the body bags leaving hospitals at 600-700-800 bodies a day, ppl might take it more seriously. I think since they’re staying home, a lot of ppl are “out of sight, out of mind”-ing covid-19

    1. LOL that comment brought back the image of the three stooges as firemen in the movie “mad mad mad mad world” . I understand that was their last cameo role for the stooges.

  12. It is a sad day in America when corporations are more important than individual lives. Citizens United anyone?

  13. It’s no accident that OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor have been missing in action since day one. OSHA had only 862 inspectors at the start of the year, the fewest since 1975. Trump has failed to fill nearly half of its top leadership positions, including that of director.

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