San Diego scientists among group calling on CDC to tighten COVID-19 guidelines

Credit: Associated Press

Above: Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, inoculated Christian Dollahon, 66 of Oceanside, with the Pfizer vaccine at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Friday, February 12, 2021 in Del Mar, Calf.

Some prominent researchers, including two from San Diego, are calling on federal officials to better explain how COVID-19 is spread.

Kim Prather, atmospheric chemist at UC San Diego, and infectious disease specialist Robert Schooley, are among those calling on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to change their guidelines on safety and the COVID-19 virus.

They fear that tiny airborne particles called aerosols are responsible for the majority of COVID-19 infections.

“Inside, aerosols is like being in the room with a smoker,” Prather said. “There is no other way to describe it. They float. They are produced simply by speaking. Not by coughing or sneezing. They just come from people when they talk.

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Tiny aerosols can fill the air in a poorly ventilated room, allowing disease transmission even after an infected person has left the space, according to Prather.

Prather joined researchers across the country to call on President Biden, the CDC and Dr Anthony Fauci to take immediate action to address the risk of inhalation transmission.

“The CDC’s guidelines and recommendations do not include the control measures necessary to protect the public and workers from inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” the letter’s authors wrote. “Failure to respond to inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2 continues to put workers and the public at serious risk of infection. People of color, many of whom work on the frontlines in essential jobs, have suffered – and continue to suffer – from the greatest impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. “

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Concerned scientists believe that the emergence of even more transmissible virus variants should make rapid action a priority.

“I honestly believe that one, and that’s the whole point of the letter, that once we recognize it’s in the air, that’s the main way it gets to us,” said Prather. “Then we can implement whatever steps we need to take to put the right infrastructure in place. We can tell people how to make sure their air is clean. ”

The letter contained four specific recommendations:

• The CDC should make it clear to the public that inhalation exposure from small aerosols is one of the primary means of spreading the virus and update its policy and guidelines to combat inhalation of small particles in public places and the workplace, and should develop guidelines for better face coverings for the public. .

• The CDC and OSHA should issue recommendations and requirements for the use of NIOSH approved respirators – such as N95 filter mask respirators – for all healthcare and other high-risk workers, including those in meat and poultry, corrections and transit operations. One year after the start of this pandemic, we must provide appropriate respiratory protection to all workers who need it.

• OSHA to issue an emergency workplace standard on COVID-19 that requires inhalation risk assessment, adoption of controls including improved ventilation, physical distancing, effective respiratory protection for workers in high-risk jobs; and face masks and face masks for other workers exposed to the virus at work.

• The federal government should use the Defense Production Act to speed up production of high quality respirators and face masks.

Proper masks, better ventilation and interior HEPA filters can go a long way in reducing risks indoors.

Don Milton, an environmental health researcher at the University of Maryland, is among academics and doctors calling on the CDC to recognize the airborne risk.

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“The country is moving forward to fight this pandemic,” Milton said. “Speed ​​up vaccines, expand the use of masks to combat the virus’s disparate impact on people of color. But to be successful, we must finally recognize inhalation exposure.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association is one of several organizations calling for changes to protect people in the workplace.

The letter was signed by:

• Rick Bright, PhD, former director of BARDA, Department of Health and Human Services;

• Lisa M. Brosseau, ScD, CIH, professor (retired), research consultant, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota;

• Lynn R. Goldman, MD, MS, MPH, Michael and Lori Milken Dean and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University;

• Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine & Bellevue Hospital Center;

• Jose-Luis Jimenez, PhD, University of Colorado at Boulder;

• Yoshihiro Kawaoka, DVM, PhD, professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and University of Tokyo;

• Linsey Marr, PhD, Professor Charles P. Lunsford, Department of Civil Engineering, Virginia Tech;

• David Michaels, PhD, MPH, Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University;

• Donald K. Milton, MD, DrPH, Professor of Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Professor, Internal Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, University of Maryland;

• Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, Professor Regents, McKnight Presidential Chair in Public Health and Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota;

• Kimberly Prather, PhD, Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry and Director, NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego;

• Robert T. Schooley, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health and Co-Director, Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, University of California, San Diego;

• Peg Seminario, MS, Director of Safety and Health (retired), AFL-CIO

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