The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent a COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS) to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on October 12 for regulatory review. Review by OIRA is the last step before the ETS is issued, which will be effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register. 

While the substance of the ETS is not publicly available, it is expected to require employers with 100 or more employees to have their employees vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. While most dental practices are unlikely to be subject to this ETS's mandates, dentists practicing in hospitals or other health system settings with a large number of employees may be impacted.

Impact on General Dentistry: AGD is monitoring the status of all federal regulations that stand to potentially impact dental practices or individual dentists, including the pending OSHA COVID-19 ETS. AGD will respond appropriately to the ETS, pending the contents of the final rule.