CDC HICPAC to decide infection control guidelines
I don’t want to *catch* diseases from the doctors or at the hospital, and if you don’t either here’s some information you need and some things you might do that could make a difference.
The upcoming CDC HICPAC meeting is reported to be about rolling back protective measures and mitigations in healthcare settings. That’s both believable based on past decisions, and that’s a big problem.
CDC HICPAC meeting August 22nd 2023
When: Tuesday August 22, 2023, 12:00pm to 2:30pm US Eastern Standard Time
Where: Teleconference Only
https://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/meeting.html
Registration Required, Deadline: August 17, 2022, to attend or make a public comment.
Loosening standards for ALL infectious disease - not just covid
I have heard they're even considering doing away with many measures for diseases other than covid. This sounds bonkers but Marty Makary, a surgeon, was mocking handwashing in Congress back in February!!
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National Nurses United has the video on twitter.com as well as tiktok.
It has been floated that they should do away with PPE - possibly even in covid wards
MISINFORMATION IS RAMPANT among medical professionals already. A doctor told me they believe it’s now generally accepted that PPE was no longer necessary for covid. At all. I heard from someone connected to a nurses union that the belief was that masks weren’t needed anymore because covid hospitalizations were very low. This doesn’t make any logical sense. If the virus is circulating, it’s still very much a threat most especially where people with covid and people with other health conditions are most likely to mingle — when seeking healthcare.
People who attended a prior HICPAC meeting earlier this year told me that they were hinting that PPE would no longer even be used in covid wards. I heard it was suggested that surgical masks at most would be needed for any reason outside very specifically determined political designations, apparently determined by industry PR funded by who even knows.
The CDC HICPAC committee even cited widely debunked anti-mask “studies” that seem specifically created as PR for justifying getting rid of masks.
And they have been called out for this:
Public comments at the CDC HICPAC Meeting on June 8th 2023, Health Watch USA Nathanael Nerode: “Loeb 2022 has been debunked multiple times and I have emailed the debunkings to you. And in addition Loeb failed to disclose a conflict of interest. Loeb was personally responsible for preventing Canadian nurses from getting access to KN95 masks which may well have injured and killed them. He did not disclose this conflict of interest; this makes all of his work suspect. In addition many of these studies listed there, including Loeb 2022 contained protocols that assumed the droplet dynamic which is now discredited and known to be false.”
Why get rid of masks in healthcare though? Well, because they “remind people of danger” and might adversely affect The Economy if people see people wearing masks, they’re going to believe there’s an aerosol transmission threat, and decide to not go on a cruise or to a big conference. There are tons of dollars invested in promoting the expenditures of fossil fuel and commercial real estate, among other industries. These big money interests are so invested in instilling mask phobias in the public that they are using many tactics of the tobacco industry and oxycontin, faking credentials, and manufacturing consent by manufacturing mild.
Debunking is widely available on the false “evidence” that CDC HICPAC leans on.
CIDRAP - COMMENTARY: Wear a respirator, not a cloth or surgical mask, to protect against respiratory viruses. Lisa M Brosseau, ScD, CIH, C. R. MacIntyre, PhD, Angela Ulrich, PhD, MPH, Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, February 23, 2023 One of these is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) by Loeb et al comparing SARS-CoV-2 infections in healthcare workers wearing respirators or masks for care of COVID-19 patients.1 The other is a Cochrane review by Jefferson et al of mask and respirator studies in households and healthcare settings.2 Both are built on the premise that infectious respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and influenza are only transmitted person to person by large droplets. This is not true. The science is very clear that the predominant mode by which these viruses are transmitted person to person is inhalation of small particles, most of which are around 1 micrometer.3–13
Potential conflicts of interest with seemingly clueless committee members
1. None of the hospitals with which the HICPAC members are affiliated have a policy of universal masking.
2. Though some of the HICPAC members look not unfavorably on masking, and on airborne transmission generally, none could be characterized as advocates.
3. Favorability toward universal masking, ideally with N95s, is inversely correlated with institutional clout; Mass General/Brighams vehemently opposed; the University of North Carolina and Barnes-Jewish persuadable.
One must question if these “experts” hold certain nonsensical views because their paychecks depend upon them buying into misinformation and spreading it. But even if not, then their competence must be questioned because their judgement seems that bad.
This is one of the doctors on the HICPAC committee, Erica Shenoy, an executive at a big hospital, so she has a conflict of interest. The hospital bottom line interest appears to be to push people through lucrative elective surgeries, and infections being found, in order to stop spread, might hold up the surgeries and delay the profit.
Shenoy also seems to be highly confused about what endemic means which is extremely concerning for an infection control position at a hospital. She actually was involved in authoring an op-ed that has a weird graphic that suggests endemic diseases should never be addressed long-term, as long as economic supply chains are not completely disrupted.
Erica Shenoy can “read my lips” — I don’t want to risk my health & family to see her face unmasked in person. Apr 24 2023 It’s shocking that someone who’s supposed to be knowledgeable about infectious disease wouldn’t understand that endemic disease pretty much means PERMANENT infection controls. Where malaria is endemic, they don’t stop using mosquito nets — the use of mosquito nets is standard — and sometimes mandated in hotels in malaria endemic regions. Where covid is permanently in circulation, masks should then be perpetually mandated in high risk settings and essential services. If you want to get rid of disease control — get rid of the disease. Until that happens, you need to at least use infection control measures. The Associate Chief of the Infection Control Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital should surely know such basic infectious disease protocol. Why doesn’t she?
I really don’t know why you would want a doctor in charge of infection control at a big hospital who prioritizes economic supply chain concerns over human health and safety. But it’s worse than that since in that op-ed it’s clear that she also only cares that the supply chain is somewhat functional. This to me is a doctor who appears to be willing to fight to get rid of mosquito nets where malaria is endemic, and thinks endemic ebola and dengue spreading would be ok so long as global markets are semi-functional. It’s even demonstrated in this weird graphic that the authors may believe only “priority populations” deserve vaccine access while the virus is allowed to spread freely through the community. (It’s also unspecified who qualifies as a “priority” population.)
And the committee has floated numerous ideas that contradict science and reality, and seem focused on political aims and business interests.
World Health Network - Prevent Airborne Transmission in Healthcare In their June 2023 meeting [9], HICPAC claimed that data show comparable protection, while recommending surgical masks for seasonal coronaviruses, and N95s for diseases considered “novel” or “pandemic phase,” despite the fact that this distinction does not reflect the airborne transmission mechanism. They previously suggested it might be possible to declare SARS-cov-2 as seasonal [10], even though it isn’t [11], as it’s causing substantial morbidity and mortality throughout the year, including outside of the traditional viral respiratory seasons.
People on this committee should be knowledgeable about these things, and they should be prioritizing human health and safety.
Daming critiques of the public input process, but it’s not enough, we need this fixed
Letter Campaign by People’s CDC - Tell Congress: CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) needs public oversight. Please advocate for increased public oversight of the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), the committee that oversees policies on the prevention of infectious diseases in healthcare settings.
If your member of Congress is on the Health Care and Financial Services Subcommittee or your US Senator is on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, they could have direct influence on this issue. But it’s important to not stay silent on this issue with any of our representatives, and not let the anti-mask business interests be the only ones demanding their attention.
Dr David Michaels, Epidemiologist, longest serving OSHA head, 2009 to 2017, testifying at the OSHA hearing on April 28, 2022 “OSHA has a statutory responsibility, statutory requirement to have an open and transparent process like we are having today to just determine what the standard should be. CDC is a black box. We have no idea how these recommendations are determined. Unfortunately, until there are, there are Freedom of Information Act requests or Congressional inquiries. So given all those things, it's really incumbent upon OSHA to develop standards, and to say these are the standards that every employer covered by the standard must follow.”
Public agencies responsible for human health should not be like a “black box” — they should be transparent and subject to public oversight.
Naked Capitalism - CDC’s HICPAC Prepares to Violate the Letter and Spirit of the Federal Advisory Committee Act at Its August 22 Anti-Mask Teleconference. Posted on August 14, 2023 by Lambert Strether HICPAC Has Obfuscated the Meeting Agenda, to the Detriment of the Public. According to the CRO, the FACA Final Rule requires advisory committee meeting notices to be published in the Federal Register at least 15 calendar days in advance of the meeting.
Part of the problem is that most of these plans are not being stated, so they keep secret planned changes in guidelines until they spring it on everyone, leaving no chance for the public to protect ourselves from the fallout from very gravely inadvisable guidance and profoundly confusing public messaging. And then we’re given no information on what supports (or doesn’t) the chosen decisions.
This has happened over and over again. My FOIA request regarding the May 2021 CDC guideline changes was met with extensive redactions citing Exemption 5, deliberative process. (They’re allowed to keep the deliberative process and their reasons for decisions secret. Why?)
People’s CDC: CDC's HICPAC needs public oversight There is a dangerous new government policy being proposed which could harm healthcare workers and patients across the country. Instead of strengthening infection control policies in healthcare settings to protect workers and patients from infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and future pandemic pathogens, the CDC is planning future guidance which could lower healthcare infection control standards. The CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) advises the CDC on infection control policies, but committee meetings are subject to almost no public scrutiny and policies are made with minimal input from patients or healthcare workers. We only have access to a barebones powerpoint from CDC/HICPAC’s last meeting on June 8-9 2023, which outlines the proposed changes. They are slated to vote on the proposal on August 22. Meanwhile, many CDC/HICPAC committee members represent powerful hospitals around the nation.
Numerous professionals, experts, groups, and citizens have been sounding the alarm on this.
Numerous experts and professionals have signed onto this letter:
Letter to CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen Re: CDC/HICPAC’s Plan to Weaken Guidance for Health Care Respiratory Protection and Infection Control The draft recommendations do not adequately provide for the proper control measures – isolation, ventilation, and NIOSH-approved respirators – to protect against transmission of infectious aerosols. They are weaker than existing CDC infection control guidelines. The draft recommendations, if adopted, will put health care personnel and patients at serious risk of harm from exposure to infectious aerosols.
Add your name to the petition:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid can incentivize and motivate healthcare providers to do infection control
The problem is that COVID is not included in the list of infectious disease metrics for the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program.
People’s CDC has a letter campaign about this.
If your U.S. Senator is on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, they could have direct influence on this issue. But even if your senators aren’t, it’s important to write our representatives anyway and counter the many business interests that are lobbying them constantly.