Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features a couple of projects that focus on dealing with COVID as an Occupational Safety issue, starting with NIOSH’s recent announcement that it provided more than $5 million in extramural funding during FY 2021 to 38 projects that address pandemic challenges.
As part of funding received through CDC’s COVID-19 response efforts, NIOSH awarded one investigator-initiated research grant focused on occupational inhalation exposure to infectious respiratory virus aerosols in medical facilities, and also provided one year in supplemental funding to the State OSH Surveillance Program, which includes states and other eligible jurisdictions currently funded by NIOSH to develop or expand. Fifteen of the 22 state surveillance programs requested and received funding for 26 projects focused on strengthening either one or both of two areas: (1) worker safety and health, safe return to work policies, and mitigation or prevention of COVID-19 outbreaks in various industrial sectors, and (2) communication and outreach to increase vaccine confidence in workers.