Michigan Regulators Want To Make Debunked 'Surface Transmission' Rules Permanent

Michigan regulators are working to make the state’s current COVID-19 rules, which are now considered emergency ones, permanent. Officials at the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration have proposed making face mask mandates, required daily temperature screenings and other epidemic response practices permanent fixtures of Michigan workplaces.

The agency also says that the coronavirus “can settle and deposit on environmental surfaces where they can remain viable for days.” One part of its plan, then, requires all businesses to “increase facility cleaning and disinfection.” Barbershops, hair salons, tattoo parlors and other businesses with waiting areas must, among other things, “discard magazines in waiting areas and other non-essential, shared items that cannot be disinfected.”

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says, “The risk of surface transmission of COVID-19 is low,” leading CNN to report in a headline that “disinfecting surfaces to prevent COVID often all for show.”

According to the CDC, studies suggest that “each contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection.”

Updated CDC guidance appears less stringent than what MIOSHA is trying to put in place permanently, even in businesses with no cases of COVID-19 and a fully vaccinated staff.