San Diego scientists among groups calling on CDC to gather COVID-19 guide

Credit: Associated Press

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

Some prominent researchers, including two in San Diego, are calling on federal officials to do a better job of explaining how COVID-19 is spreading.

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

They worry that small airborne particles known as aerosols are responsible for most COVID-19 infections.

“Inside, the aerosols are like being in a room with a smoker,” Prather said. “There is no other way to describe it. I’m floating. They are produced simply speaking. Not by coughing or sneezing. I just get out of people when I talk. ”

ABOUT: San Diego International Airport Workers Request COVID-19 Vaccine

Small aerosols can fill the air in a poorly ventilated room, allowing the disease to be transmitted even after an infected person leaves the space, according to Prather.

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

“The CDC’s guidance and recommendations do not include the necessary control measures to protect the public and workers from inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” the letter’s authors wrote. “The failure to address 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 in the forefront of essential jobs, have suffered – and continue to suffer – the greatest effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. ”

San Diego water administrators are linked to state aid

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

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

The letter included four specific recommendations:

• The CDC needs to clarify to the public that exposure to inhalation by small aerosols is a major way in which the virus spreads and updates its policy and guidelines to address the inhalation of small particles in public and workplace environments and should develop guidelines for better quality face coverage for the public.

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

• OSHA must issue a workplace emergency standard for COVID-19 that requires an inhalation risk assessment, the adoption of controls, including improved ventilation, physical distance, effective respiratory protection for workers in high-risk workplaces, and high quality face coatings and barrier masks for other workers exposed to the virus at work.

• The federal government must use the Defense Production Act to increase the production of high-quality breathing apparatus and barrier coverage.

Proper masks, better ventilation and indoor HEPA filters can go a long way in reducing the risk inside.

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

ABOUT: Contract for San Diego Zoo Gorillas COVID-19; The first known transmission to large monkeys

“The country is moving forward to fight this pandemic,” Milton said. “The spread of vaccines, the expansion of the use of masks that address the disappearing impact of the virus on people of color. But to be truly successful we must finally acknowledge inhalation exposure. ”

The American Association for Industrial Hygiene is among several organizations calling for changes to protect people in their workplaces.

The letter was signed by the following:

• 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 Diseases 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 School of Public Health Institute, 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, Charles P. Lunsford Professor, 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, Regents Professor, President McKnight Presidential President in Public Health and Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota;

• Kimberly Prather, PhD, Distinguished Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Director, NSF Center for the Impact of Aerosols on Environmental Chemistry (CAICE), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego;

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

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

To view PDF documents, download Acrobat Reader.