this is going to be incredibly interesting to watch. if we’re going to have federal agencies to mandate and monitor worker safety (a highly debatable premise of which i’m not terribly fond) then at least we ought to expect them to consider things like, well, you know, worker safety.

such safety is always a function of risk reward and to assess it, one must always get accurate assessment of risks. if i require you to work in a room where fiberglass is sanded, what are the risks to you and what mitigates them?

if i require you to get a vaccine to come into work, what are the risks to you of doing so?

so OSHA is mandating recording of adverse vaccine outcomes to ensure data is gathered to assess risk.

here’s the meat of it:

(SOURCE)

if we accept the basic premise of having OSHA, then this seems like a pretty unobjectionable demand and a standard very much in line with the role given to safety regulators.

it’s going to be fascinating watching the knots that the safety ninnies are going to tie themselves in pretending it’s not and the lengths CDC and biden admin will go to to try to torpedo this.

you can already see it starting in the industry:

this is such disingenuous, facile talk as to essentially amount to doublespeak.

“shocked, yes shocked and dismayed we are to find that OSHA wants to monitor the safety outcomes of an activity we are mandating that our employees undertake! how are we to go about mandating stuff if we’re going to be held accountable for the outcomes of our mandates!?! jeez guys…”

amusingly, this is EXACLY the sort of study that OSHA would demand if you wanted to, say, mandate wearing N-95 masks in a workplace and historically always did, well at least before 2020 when they got swept aside and pushed into ignominy and irrelevance because everyone knew they were not going to support masked workplaces without data and the data shows the RISKS are considerable and the benefits non-existent as SOURCE or PERSONAL protection.

OSHA got sidelined on masks in workplaces because they were actually competent to assess them whereas the CDC never was and has evinced an alarming propensity to lie and push garbage studies and arbitrary claims. (see personal and source above). they have never even looked at the risk side of the ledger, just trumped up some pseudoscientific claims around purported benefit.

but this is OSHA being OSHA. they demand to monitor and measure the risks if you mandate employee behavior.

they are re-asserting their control and authority here.

they are beloved of the left and of the safety karens. they are the good guys and those who oppose them are the evil corporate stooges seeking to exploit the worker and play fast and loose with his safety.

this is going to be really fun to watch, because they are doing exactly the same here. they are doing what they left loves them for and it’s going to demonstrate in short order just how unclothed the public health emperors have been and take reporting into a field where they cannot rig or manipulate it. OSHA keeps good records.

this will lead to many of the CDC’s cheerleaders and vaxx mandate proponents to face an uncomfortable question:

this is one of those situations that many libertarians find challenging. it’s OSHA, an organization entirely centered on disrupting and preventing free association and contract and abridging personal choice happening to pursue a policy that by so doing, happens to reach an outcome many like (no mandate) by a means that is coercive(mandating behavior).

rather than find this problematic, i am choosing to adopt a different stance: this is hilarious.

it’s one arm of leviathan wrestling with another (the CDC, public health, etc) and revealing all the stupid and dishonest policy it has undertaken. it’s a wonderful object lesson in all manner of the internal contradictions and mishaps that become inevitable once you get the government into the “mandating how people interact” game.

it’s a prize fight between two guys you dislike where just rooting for “carnage” feels like a win and OSHA looks to have the right outcome of “if you’re going to mandate stuff, the liability for what happens falls on you” vs the CDC’s “mandate all kinds of crap and “ego te absolvo,” cuz, science™.”

the always poignant thomas sowell can guide us here:

and so when trying to choose between the CDC and OSHA here and discern the lesser evil, this is why i would urge siding with OSHA.

they, at least, seek to have responsibility for outcomes land upon those who set policy and thereby at align incentives somewhat and encourage actual cost benefit decision making. the CDC’s stance of “mandate and skate” does not and never has.

now pass the popcorn. this is gonna get good…

addendum: is it even legal for an employer to mandate an experimental vaccine that is only EUA, not FDA approved?

what is the liability structure around that? the vaccine companies have a lability waiver. would a construction company that mandated vaccination be on the hook for adverse events you suffered?