Relaxing Mask Protocol Would Reduce Protection Against COVID, Warn Health Officials

Concerns have been raised by nurses, researchers, and workplace safety officials that the CDC’s new rules might weaken hospitals’ defences against the coronavirus and other airborne diseases.

Hospital infection control guidelines originally published by the CDC in 2007 are now being revised by one of its advisory groups. After the body revealed its proposed draft in June, many in the medical and scientific communities voiced their disapproval.

It was controversially decided in the report that N95 face masks are similar to looser, surgical face masks in some contexts, and that medical professionals need only use surgical masks while managing individuals sick with “common, endemic” diseases like the seasonal flu.

Originally scheduled for August 22, the committee delayed a vote on the amendments until November. Once the recommendation has been finalized, the CDC will begin the process of adapting the committee’s evaluation into standards that hospitals across the country would normally adhere to. Members of the public voiced their concern about the CDC’s future direction after the conference, particularly in light of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. There has been a weekly rise in the number of COVID-related hospitalizations and fatalities across the country.

Gwendolyn Hill, an intern at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., termed healthcare facilities crucial in that some of the most at-risk individuals have to stay there. In order to prevent patients from going home sicker than when they arrived, she recommended using N95 masks, ventilation, and air-purifying technologies.

Alexander Kallen, working in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, said, “We are very happy to receive feedback. It is our goal to develop a guideline that is protective of patients, visitors, and health workers.” He further stated that the draft guidelines have not yet been finalized.

Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee members from the CDC submitted a report draft in June, citing research that revealed little variation in infection rates between health practitioners using N95 masks and surgical masks in the clinic. The data has faults, they said. Many infected healthcare professionals in trials, for instance, wore their masks at all times while on the job. Nonetheless, they decided the masks were interchangeable.

Their findings are in contrast with a 2022 CDC research that indicated that wearing a N95 mask reduced the risk of being infected with coronavirus by 83%, as opposed to 66% for surgical masks and 55% for cotton masks. It also disregards the findings of a 2017 large clinical investigation, which found that N95 masks provided much better protection against influenza infections for healthcare workers than surgical masks. 

Clinicians who are concerned about this issue hope that the committee will reevaluate its recommendations in light of new data and new points of view before November. Industrial hygienist for National Nurses United, Rocelyn de Leon-Minch stated the proposal would have a terrible effect on the welfare of patients and their capacity to respond to future health emergencies if the standards of care were to be codified.