It’s full steam (and full heat) over here.
We turned on the air conditioner. We opened applications for the 2021 class of America’s Safest Companies. We are finishing the next print issue of EHS Today. We are rounding out the lineup for the 2021 Safety Leadership Conference.
It seems we’ve finally turned the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic, but it continues to pose challenges to the workplace. And, it seems, it has spurred (or reignited) some hobbies. There’s also some news that’s a little spicy but also good for the environment.
Let’s dive right in.
The Implications of FDA Approval
We’ve written extensively about companies’ efforts to get their workforce vaccinated. Many are encouraging and some are incentivizing, but they can also mandate it. Plenty of polls show a majority of Americans support a mandate.
However, one part of the argument that may not have held up in court was the fact that the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization.
Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech have now begun the process of seeking full FDA approval. A request for full approval, a Biologic License Application, requires at least six months of data, among other information. This process is expected to take months, though having more than 140 million people safely vaccinated should help.
Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, told CNN it is “highly likely” that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines will be fully approved by the FDA as early as the second half of this year.
That means that employers, schools and other organizations could require people to get vaccinated. There could be other challenges, including some state representatives who are drafting legislation to prohibit employer mandates.
Full approval may encourage those who are hesitant to get vaccinated. It will also allow the pharmaceutical companies to market the vaccines and eventually raise the price.
So, as with all things COVID-19, the issue is complicated and will persist for the foreseeable future.
Read more here.
Leisure Time
We were struck by this headline: “The Great Depression led to many of the hobbies we enjoy now. The pandemic created a whole host of new ones.”
We didn’t think we did anything memorable this past year, where it seems we have been focused on survival and other basic needs.
But then we thought about all the Netflix we watched, puzzles we completed, walks we took, face masks we applied, books we read, bread we made and other foods we cooked. It seems we’ve been quite busy. More surprisingly, these leisurely activities have an important role to play, so much so that the Mayo Clinic added hobbies to the list of pandemic self-care strategies.
"In this time of uncertainty and instability, and a world and existence we no longer recognize, people need an anchor to familiarity and what once brought them comfort, stability, safety, and happiness," clinical psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere told CNN last year.
So whether you’ve resumed a favorite past time or picked up a new one, know that you doing more than just passing time. You were actively helping yourself cope with some very difficult and stressful times, even if you were relaxing on the couch.
Read more at your leisure here.
Every Last Drop
Taco Bell is working to become a better a steward of the environment, at least with respect to their hot sauce.
The fast food chain announced a partnership last month with TerraCycle, a company that specializes in hard to recycle materials, to give its hot sauce packets a “spicier second life that doesn’t involve a landfill,” according to a press release.
It may seem like a small deal, but that hot sauce really adds up. Taco Bell said that more than 8 billion sauce packets are used every year.
The recycling pilot program will launch later in the year with more details to be announced then, but Taco Bell participation will be simple and involve free shipping, which would be in line with TerraCycle’s other programs.
Read more here.