Update: CDC work group proceeds to develop infection control guidance updates without frontline health care workers, unions, and patient advocates

Submitted by ADonahue on

CDC’s Work Group adds few new members with expertise in occupational medicine and respiratory protection, remains dominated by infection prevention managers and industry

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiated work to update foundational infection control guidance for health care settings in 2022. The CDC’s advisory committee, the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), has formed a Work Group to formulate draft updates. In January 2024, the CDC returned HICPAC’s proposed updates for more work and requested that HICPAC expand the scope of technical expertise represented on its Work Group.

Documents acquired by NNU in response to information requests under federal law indicate that the CDC has reconstituted the Work Group and resumed meeting to address the CDC’s questions. Here is what we have found in our analysis of these documents, which are posted below in the format in which they were received from the CDC:

  • Six new members have been added to the Work Group. Two have infection prevention expertise, similar to the ten existing Work Group members. Three are physicians with expertise in occupational medicine or aerosol research. One is a certified industrial hygienist with expertise in respiratory protection.
  • The updated Work Group roster still lacks essential perspectives that must be added, including frontline health care workers and their unions, patient advocates, and other public health experts, including ventilation engineers and aerosol scientists.
  • The Work Group began to meet again in February 2024 with new members to address the questions raised by the CDC when it returned the draft to HICPAC for further work.
  • The group has not reached consensus regarding the use of N95 respirators vs surgical masks to protect health care workers from pathogens that transmit through the air. Multiple members of the group remain focused on maintaining and even expanding the use of surgical masks as protective equipment for health care workers exposed to infectious diseases. In response, they may be considering revising the definitions of transmission categories.