APIC urges members to disregard new CDC masking guidelines

The recent relaxation of masking guidelines for healthcare professionals by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seems a bit premature to one professional organization.

In fact, infection preventionists should disregard the CDC’s updated recommendation and maintain mandatory masking requirements for healthcare workers who come into contact with patients, states the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in a press release.

“Our members clearly understand that the pandemic is not over,” APIC states. “Numerous indicators, including wastewater surveillance and rising case counts overseas, point to a potential wave of new COVID-19 cases in the coming months. When that happens, we will have to shift back to universal masking. Having a policy that changes back and forth is confusing to healthcare personnel and erodes trust. Furthermore, rising COVID cases could lead to healthcare worker shortages, a situation we all want to avoid.”

APIC represents about 15,000 infection preventionists, who were quite in demand during the early days of the pandemic because they’re the ones charged with keeping hospital staff safe as well as patients.

The CDC last month updated its recommendations for healthcare workers, lifting universal masking recommendations for healthcare personnel. Masking would still be recommended for healthcare workers in communities where the spreading of COVID-19 remains a distinct possibility, and the CDC considers about three-quarters of the counties in the U.S. to be under such a cloud.

APIC wants universal masking in healthcare facilities to stay in place, although it recognizes that healthcare workers—like much of the rest of the country—want to put the pandemic in the rearview window for good.

“While APIC understands that many healthcare employees have grown weary of masking, we do not believe it is wise to discontinue this evidence-based, COVID-19 mitigation strategy—especially as we enter what is predicted to be a severe flu season, with COVID-19 surges looming on the horizon. In addition, there is a seven-day lag in CDC COVID testing data which may limit the ability to detect surges in real time.”

Lisa Waldowski, the executive director of infection prevention and control at Wellstar Health System, an integrated healthcare system in Georgia, agrees. Waldowski tells Fierce Healthcare that COVID-19 will always be with us. “To remove masking in healthcare because we are tired of this mitigation effort and what it represents is truly a breach in infection prevention and control. Collectively healthcare has difficulty in promoting prevention and implementing and sustaining evidence-based practice. We continue to practice the hard way, not the safe way.”

In the U.S., 450 people died from COVID-19 last Friday, while 50,956 new cases were recorded, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

“As healthcare professionals, we are obligated to protect the vulnerable patients entrusted to our care,” APIC states in its press release. “It is for this reason that we take annual flu shots, and stay up to date with other immunizations, including COVID-19. Requiring masks of anyone who enters a healthcare setting, including employees, helps to ensure the safest environment for our patients.”