Christopher C. Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a “Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response” named chiropractic care as an essential service.
Functioning critical infrastructure is imperative during the response to the COVID-19 emergency for both public health and safety as well as community well-being, the CISA says. The list of essential services is intended to “support state, local, tribal, territorial and industry partners in identifying the critical infrastructure sectors and the essential workers needed to maintain the services and functions Americans depend on daily and that need to be able to operate resiliently during the COVID-19 pandemic response.”
CISA executes the Secretary of Homeland Security’s authorities to secure critical infrastructure. Consistent with these authorities, CISA has developed, in collaboration with other federal agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector, an “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce” advisory list.
“This list is advisory in nature,” Krebs wrote. “It is not, nor should it be considered, a federal directive or standard. Additionally, this advisory list is not intended to be the exclusive list of critical infrastructure sectors, workers, and functions that should continue during the COVID-19 response across all jurisdictions. Individual jurisdictions should add or subtract essential workforce categories based on their own requirements and discretion.”
The industries the list members support represent, but are not limited to, medical and healthcare, telecommunications, information technology systems, defense, food and agriculture, transportation and logistics, energy, water and wastewater, law enforcement, and public works.
On the essential health care/public health list are physicians, dentists, psychologists, mid-level practitioners, nurses and assistants, infection control and quality assurance personnel, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists and assistants, social workers, optometrists, speech pathologists, chiropractors, and diagnostic and therapeutic technicians and technologists.
To read the release and see the entire list of essential workers go to cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-critical-infrastructure-workforce.
For the latest COVID-19 info for doctors of chiropractic, including upcoming webinars, updates, resources and articles from Chiropractic Economics, go to chiroeco.com/coronavirus-covid-19.
