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Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers
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Michael Ejercito
Sep 17, 2023, 1:16:11 PM9/17/23
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https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16ktlnj/expected_cdc_guidance_on_n95_masks_outrages/
Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers
Health workers warn that loosening mask advice in hospitals would harm
patients and providers.
A person holds up an N95 mask in the ER at a medical center in Richmond,
Texas
A person holds up an N95 mask in the ER at a medical center in Richmond,
Texas, in 2020.Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images file
SAVE
Create your free profile or log in to save this article
Sept. 16, 2023, 4:00 AM PDT
By Amy Maxmen | KFF Health News
Nurses, researchers and workplace safety officers worry new guidelines
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might reduce
protection against the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in
hospitals.
A CDC advisory committee has been updating its 2007 standards for
infection control in hospitals this year. Many health care professionals
and scientists expressed outrage after the group released a draft of its
proposals in June.
The draft controversially concluded that N95 face masks are equivalent
to looser, surgical face masks in certain settings — and that doctors
and nurses need to wear only surgical masks when treating patients
infected by “common, endemic” viruses, like those that cause the
seasonal flu.
The committee was slated to vote on the changes at a public meeting on
Aug. 22, but it postponed the vote until November. Once the advice is
final, the CDC begins a process of turning the committee’s assessment
into guidelines that hospitals throughout the United States typically
follow. After the meeting, members of the public expressed concern about
where the CDC was headed, especially as Covid cases rise. Nationwide,
hospital admissions and deaths due to Covid have been increasing for
several consecutive weeks.
“Health care facilities are where some of the most vulnerable people in
our population have to frequent or stay,” said Gwendolyn Hill, a
research intern at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after the
committee’s presentation. She said N95 masks, ventilation, and
air-purifying technology can lower rates of Covid transmission within
hospital walls and “help ensure that people are not leaving sicker than
they came.”
“We are very happy to receive feedback,” Alexander Kallen, chief of the
Prevention and Response Branch in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare
Quality Promotion, told KFF Health News. “It is our goal to develop a
guideline that is protective of patients, visitors, and health workers.”
He added that the draft guidelines are far from final.
In June, members of the CDC’s group — the Healthcare Infection Control
Practices Advisory Committee — presented a draft of their report, citing
studies that found no difference in infection rates among health
providers who wore N95 masks versus surgical masks in the clinic. They
noted flaws in the data. For example, many health workers who got Covid
in the trials were not infected while wearing their masks at work. But
still, they concluded the masks were equivalent.
Their conclusion runs contrary to the CDC’s 2022 report, which found
that an N95 mask cuts the odds of testing positive for the coronavirus
by 83%, compared with 66% for surgical masks and 56% for cloth masks. It
also excludes a large clinical trial published in 2017 finding that N95
masks were far superior to surgical masks in protecting health workers
from influenza infections. And it contradicts an extensive evaluation by
the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences,
finding that N95 masks, also called N95 respirators, were more effective
against Covid than surgical masks in health care settings around the world.
“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95
respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin
Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science
of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties,
engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how
airborne transmission works.”
Kaiser Permanente
AD BY KAISER PERMANENTE
Get Medi-Cal Help Now
In life, we're always busy. Don't get distracted and risk a gap in
Medi-Cal coverage.
SEE MORE
Workers gather N95 masks as they come off an assembly line
Workers gather N95 masks as they come off an assembly line in West
Bridgewater, Mass., in 2021.John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty
Images file
Her assertion is backed by the California occupational safety agency,
Cal/OSHA, whose rules on protecting at-risk workers from infections
might be at odds with the CDC’s if the proposals are adopted. “The CDC
must not undermine respiratory protection regulation by making the false
and misleading claim that there is no difference in protection” between
N95 masks and surgical masks, commented Deborah Gold, an industrial
hygienist at Cal/OSHA, at the August meeting.
Researchers and occupational safety experts were also perplexed by how
the committee categorized airborne pathogens. A surgical mask, rather
than an N95, was suggested as protection for a category they created for
“common, endemic” viruses that spread over short distances, and “for
which individuals and communities are expected to have some immunity.”
Three committee representatives, researchers Hilary Babcock, Erica
Shenoy, and Sharon Wright, were among the authors of a June editorial
arguing that hospitals should no longer require all health care workers,
patients, and visitors to wear masks in hospitals. “The time has come to
deimplement policies that are not appropriate for an endemic pathogen,”
they wrote.
However, in a call with KFF Health News, Kallen clarified that the
committee put coronaviruses that cause colds in that category, but not
yet the coronavirus causing Covid.
Recommended
CORONAVIRUS
Sore throat, then congestion: Common Covid symptoms follow a pattern
now, doctors say
HEALTH NEWS
What decongestants work? Here are some alternatives to phenylephrine.
The committee’s next tier consisted of viruses in a “pandemic-phase,”
when the pathogen is new and little immunity through infection or
vaccination exists. It recommended that health workers wear an N95 mask
when treating patients infected by bugs in this category. Its third,
highest tier of protection was reserved for pathogens like those causing
measles and tuberculosis, which, they claimed, can spread further than
lower-tier threats and require an N95.
Virologists said the committee’s categories hold little water,
biologically speaking. A pathogen’s mode of spreading isn’t affected by
how common it is; common viruses can still harm vulnerable populations;
and many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, can travel significant distances
on microscopic droplets suspended in the air.
“Large COVID outbreaks in prisons and long-term health care facilities
have demonstrated that the behavior of infectious aerosols is not easily
classified, and these aerosols are not easily confined,” wrote the
deputy chief of health at Cal/OSHA, Eric Berg, in a letter of concern to
the CDC committee, obtained by KFF Health News.
An N95 protective mask hangs next to a hand sanitizer dispenser on a
reception's desk at a clinic
An N95 protective mask hangs next to a hand sanitizer dispenser on a
reception's desk at a clinic in Lansing, Michigan, on Oct. 18,
2020.Emily Elconin / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
The committee pitted its assessment of N95 masks against their
drawbacks. Its draft cites a study from Singapore in which nearly a
third of health care personnel, mostly nurses, said wearing such masks
negatively affected their work, causing acne and other problems
exacerbated by hot and humid conditions and prolonged shifts. Rather
than discard the masks, the authors of that study recommend
better-fitting masks and rest breaks.
Noha Aboelata, a doctor and the CEO of Roots Community Health Center in
Oakland, California, agrees. “There are other strategies to bring to
bear, like improved mask design and better testing,” she said, “if we
decide it’s unacceptable to give a patient Covid when they go to the
hospital.”
Aboelata is one of hundreds of doctors, researchers, and others who
signed a letter to CDC Director Mandy Cohen in July, expressing concern
that the CDC committee will weaken protections in hospitals. They also
warned that scaling back on N95 masks could have repercussions on
emergency stockpiles, rendering doctors and nurses as vulnerable as they
were in 2020 when mask shortages fueled infections. More than 3,600
health workers died in the first year of the pandemic in the United
States, according to a joint investigation by KFF Health News and The
Guardian.
The concerned clinicians hope the committee will reconsider its report
in light of additional studies and perspectives before November.
Referring to the draft, Rocelyn de Leon-Minch, an industrial hygienist
for National Nurses United, said, “If they end up codifying these
standards of care, it will have a disastrous impact on patient safety
and impact our ability to respond to future health crises.”
KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a
national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues
and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent
source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.Follow NBC
HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.
Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers
Health workers warn that loosening mask advice in hospitals would harm
patients and providers.
A person holds up an N95 mask in the ER at a medical center in Richmond,
Texas
A person holds up an N95 mask in the ER at a medical center in Richmond,
Texas, in 2020.Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images file
SAVE
Create your free profile or log in to save this article
Sept. 16, 2023, 4:00 AM PDT
By Amy Maxmen | KFF Health News
Nurses, researchers and workplace safety officers worry new guidelines
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might reduce
protection against the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in
hospitals.
A CDC advisory committee has been updating its 2007 standards for
infection control in hospitals this year. Many health care professionals
and scientists expressed outrage after the group released a draft of its
proposals in June.
The draft controversially concluded that N95 face masks are equivalent
to looser, surgical face masks in certain settings — and that doctors
and nurses need to wear only surgical masks when treating patients
infected by “common, endemic” viruses, like those that cause the
seasonal flu.
The committee was slated to vote on the changes at a public meeting on
Aug. 22, but it postponed the vote until November. Once the advice is
final, the CDC begins a process of turning the committee’s assessment
into guidelines that hospitals throughout the United States typically
follow. After the meeting, members of the public expressed concern about
where the CDC was headed, especially as Covid cases rise. Nationwide,
hospital admissions and deaths due to Covid have been increasing for
several consecutive weeks.
“Health care facilities are where some of the most vulnerable people in
our population have to frequent or stay,” said Gwendolyn Hill, a
research intern at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after the
committee’s presentation. She said N95 masks, ventilation, and
air-purifying technology can lower rates of Covid transmission within
hospital walls and “help ensure that people are not leaving sicker than
they came.”
“We are very happy to receive feedback,” Alexander Kallen, chief of the
Prevention and Response Branch in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare
Quality Promotion, told KFF Health News. “It is our goal to develop a
guideline that is protective of patients, visitors, and health workers.”
He added that the draft guidelines are far from final.
In June, members of the CDC’s group — the Healthcare Infection Control
Practices Advisory Committee — presented a draft of their report, citing
studies that found no difference in infection rates among health
providers who wore N95 masks versus surgical masks in the clinic. They
noted flaws in the data. For example, many health workers who got Covid
in the trials were not infected while wearing their masks at work. But
still, they concluded the masks were equivalent.
Their conclusion runs contrary to the CDC’s 2022 report, which found
that an N95 mask cuts the odds of testing positive for the coronavirus
by 83%, compared with 66% for surgical masks and 56% for cloth masks. It
also excludes a large clinical trial published in 2017 finding that N95
masks were far superior to surgical masks in protecting health workers
from influenza infections. And it contradicts an extensive evaluation by
the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences,
finding that N95 masks, also called N95 respirators, were more effective
against Covid than surgical masks in health care settings around the world.
“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95
respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin
Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science
of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties,
engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how
airborne transmission works.”
Kaiser Permanente
AD BY KAISER PERMANENTE
Get Medi-Cal Help Now
In life, we're always busy. Don't get distracted and risk a gap in
Medi-Cal coverage.
SEE MORE
Workers gather N95 masks as they come off an assembly line
Workers gather N95 masks as they come off an assembly line in West
Bridgewater, Mass., in 2021.John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty
Images file
Her assertion is backed by the California occupational safety agency,
Cal/OSHA, whose rules on protecting at-risk workers from infections
might be at odds with the CDC’s if the proposals are adopted. “The CDC
must not undermine respiratory protection regulation by making the false
and misleading claim that there is no difference in protection” between
N95 masks and surgical masks, commented Deborah Gold, an industrial
hygienist at Cal/OSHA, at the August meeting.
Researchers and occupational safety experts were also perplexed by how
the committee categorized airborne pathogens. A surgical mask, rather
than an N95, was suggested as protection for a category they created for
“common, endemic” viruses that spread over short distances, and “for
which individuals and communities are expected to have some immunity.”
Three committee representatives, researchers Hilary Babcock, Erica
Shenoy, and Sharon Wright, were among the authors of a June editorial
arguing that hospitals should no longer require all health care workers,
patients, and visitors to wear masks in hospitals. “The time has come to
deimplement policies that are not appropriate for an endemic pathogen,”
they wrote.
However, in a call with KFF Health News, Kallen clarified that the
committee put coronaviruses that cause colds in that category, but not
yet the coronavirus causing Covid.
Recommended
CORONAVIRUS
Sore throat, then congestion: Common Covid symptoms follow a pattern
now, doctors say
HEALTH NEWS
What decongestants work? Here are some alternatives to phenylephrine.
The committee’s next tier consisted of viruses in a “pandemic-phase,”
when the pathogen is new and little immunity through infection or
vaccination exists. It recommended that health workers wear an N95 mask
when treating patients infected by bugs in this category. Its third,
highest tier of protection was reserved for pathogens like those causing
measles and tuberculosis, which, they claimed, can spread further than
lower-tier threats and require an N95.
Virologists said the committee’s categories hold little water,
biologically speaking. A pathogen’s mode of spreading isn’t affected by
how common it is; common viruses can still harm vulnerable populations;
and many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, can travel significant distances
on microscopic droplets suspended in the air.
“Large COVID outbreaks in prisons and long-term health care facilities
have demonstrated that the behavior of infectious aerosols is not easily
classified, and these aerosols are not easily confined,” wrote the
deputy chief of health at Cal/OSHA, Eric Berg, in a letter of concern to
the CDC committee, obtained by KFF Health News.
An N95 protective mask hangs next to a hand sanitizer dispenser on a
reception's desk at a clinic
An N95 protective mask hangs next to a hand sanitizer dispenser on a
reception's desk at a clinic in Lansing, Michigan, on Oct. 18,
2020.Emily Elconin / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
The committee pitted its assessment of N95 masks against their
drawbacks. Its draft cites a study from Singapore in which nearly a
third of health care personnel, mostly nurses, said wearing such masks
negatively affected their work, causing acne and other problems
exacerbated by hot and humid conditions and prolonged shifts. Rather
than discard the masks, the authors of that study recommend
better-fitting masks and rest breaks.
Noha Aboelata, a doctor and the CEO of Roots Community Health Center in
Oakland, California, agrees. “There are other strategies to bring to
bear, like improved mask design and better testing,” she said, “if we
decide it’s unacceptable to give a patient Covid when they go to the
hospital.”
Aboelata is one of hundreds of doctors, researchers, and others who
signed a letter to CDC Director Mandy Cohen in July, expressing concern
that the CDC committee will weaken protections in hospitals. They also
warned that scaling back on N95 masks could have repercussions on
emergency stockpiles, rendering doctors and nurses as vulnerable as they
were in 2020 when mask shortages fueled infections. More than 3,600
health workers died in the first year of the pandemic in the United
States, according to a joint investigation by KFF Health News and The
Guardian.
The concerned clinicians hope the committee will reconsider its report
in light of additional studies and perspectives before November.
Referring to the draft, Rocelyn de Leon-Minch, an industrial hygienist
for National Nurses United, said, “If they end up codifying these
standards of care, it will have a disastrous impact on patient safety
and impact our ability to respond to future health crises.”
KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a
national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues
and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent
source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.Follow NBC
HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.
HeartDoc Andrew
Sep 17, 2023, 5:35:00 PM9/17/23
to
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
...because we mindfully choose to openly care with our heart,
HeartDoc Andrew <><
--
Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Cardiologist with an http://bit.ly/EternalMedicalLicense
2024 & upwards non-partisan candidate for U.S. President:
http://WonderfullyHungry.org
and author of the 2PD-OMER Approach:
http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrewCare
which is the only **healthy** cure for the U.S. healthcare crisis
Michael Ejercito
Sep 17, 2023, 7:28:05 PM9/17/23
to
Michael
HeartDoc Andrew
Sep 17, 2023, 7:51:50 PM9/17/23
to
Michael Ejercito wrote:
While wonderfully hungry in the Holy Spirit, Who causes (Deuteronomy
8:3) us to hunger, I note that you, Michael, are rapture ready (Luke
17:37 means no COVID just as eagles circling over their food have no
COVID) and pray (2 Chronicles 7:14) that our Everlasting (Isaiah 9:6)
Father in Heaven continues to give us "much more" (Luke 11:13) Holy
Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) so that we'd have much more of His Help to
always say/write that we're "wonderfully hungry" in **all** ways
including especially caring to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12 as shown by
http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest ) with all glory (
http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD (aka HaShem, Elohim, Abba, DEO), in
the name (John 16:23) of LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.
Laus DEO !
Suggested further reading:
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/5EWtT4CwCOg/m/QjNF57xRBAAJ
Shorter link:
http://bit.ly/StatCOVID-19Test
Be hungrier, which really is wonderfully healthier especially for
diabetics and other heart disease patients:
http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrew touts hunger (Luke 6:21a) with all glory
( http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD, Who causes us to hunger
(Deuteronomy 8:3) when He blesses us right now (Luke 6:21a) thereby
removing the http://WDJW.great-site.net/VAT from around the heart
8:3) us to hunger, I note that you, Michael, are rapture ready (Luke
17:37 means no COVID just as eagles circling over their food have no
COVID) and pray (2 Chronicles 7:14) that our Everlasting (Isaiah 9:6)
Father in Heaven continues to give us "much more" (Luke 11:13) Holy
Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) so that we'd have much more of His Help to
always say/write that we're "wonderfully hungry" in **all** ways
including especially caring to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12 as shown by
http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest ) with all glory (
http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD (aka HaShem, Elohim, Abba, DEO), in
the name (John 16:23) of LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.
Laus DEO !
Suggested further reading:
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/5EWtT4CwCOg/m/QjNF57xRBAAJ
Shorter link:
http://bit.ly/StatCOVID-19Test
Be hungrier, which really is wonderfully healthier especially for
diabetics and other heart disease patients:
http://bit.ly/HeartDocAndrew touts hunger (Luke 6:21a) with all glory
( http://bit.ly/Psalm112_1 ) to GOD, Who causes us to hunger
(Deuteronomy 8:3) when He blesses us right now (Luke 6:21a) thereby
removing the http://WDJW.great-site.net/VAT from around the heart
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