Before a CDC advisory committee votes whether to update its 13-year-old infection control rules in healthcare settings, critics of the guidance's draft say the proposal is confusing and too lenient, KFF Health News reported Dec. 14.
In November, the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee finalized its draft guidance for infection control in hospitals, nursing homes and jails. The committee is expected to vote on the matter in 2024, but health worker unions and infectious disease experts are raising concerns on the draft proposal that recommends masks — without specifying N95s — for "endemic" respiratory viruses.
The guidance also outlines different protection levels on vague categories, including whether a virus is considered common or how far it seems to travel in the air. Decisions on how to evaluate current and new airborne diseases could fall on the shoulders of hospital administrators again, experts told KFF Health News.
While more confusion and variability in infection control measures looms, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — which enforces the CDC's guidelines — is in a weak spot. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a slimmer budget caused OSHA to have its lowest number of workplace inspectors in 45 years, according to the report. From January 2020 to February 2022, the agency only followed up on 1 in 5 COVID-19-related complaints as hundreds of healthcare worker deaths went unreported.
If the guidance is approved, OSHA could be working against two high tides: staffing shortages and a higher workload from fielding questions on confusing infection control guidelines.
"Guidelines that are incomplete, weak and without scientific basis will greatly undermine CDC's credibility," David Michaels, a former OSHA director, said in an October meeting where he and others urged the CDC to reconsider before it issues the final guidance next year.