Scientists are pushing the administration of Biden to require N95 masks in high-risk jobs

More than a dozen prominent scientists are pressuring the Biden administration to demand N95 air filtration masks for employees in risky jobs, such as meat packing plants and prisons.

The 13 scientists, including several who advised President Joe Biden on the pandemic during the transition, asked the administration to recognize that the virus is more airborne than previously thought, especially with the ‘increase in more contagious variants. Highly effective masks filter approximately 95% of all small particles.

The group, which includes David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University who led the Obama Administration of Occupational Safety and Health, also called on OSHA to issue new standards that require improved workplace ventilation. high risk.

“The CDC guidelines and recommendations do not include the necessary control measures to protect the public and workers from inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” the authors wrote in a letter sent Monday to the response coordinator. White House Covid-19, Jeff Zients. The letter was also sent to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser.

“Failure to address inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2 continues to put workers and the public at serious risk of infection,” the authors continued. “People of color, many of whom work on the front lines of work in essential jobs, have suffered (and continue to suffer) the greatest impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Federal and international health agencies, including the World Health Organization, have been slow in recognizing evidence that the coronavirus can spread efficiently through the air. It was not until the summer that the WHO recognized that airborne spread could not be ruled out, only after more than 200 scientists asked the agency to do so.

The CDC, meanwhile, has emerged in recent weeks to move toward recognizing the importance of prevention measures aimed at airborne spreads, such as masks tighter for the public. On Friday, the CDC issued a new guidance for reopening the school, but limited it to the importance of ventilation, saying schools should open doors and windows whenever possible. Some doctors said they should have emphasized the importance of portable air filters or improved air conditioning systems in schools.

In its letter sent Monday, the group of scientists outlined the evidence of the spread of the virus in the air and noted other countries such as Germany and France that have demanded higher quality masks from workers and have recommended improved indoor ventilation. . They said the current guidelines of the CDC and other agencies are “obsolete” and need to be updated urgently due to the threat of new, more infectious variants.

CDC representatives did not immediately return CNBC’s request for comment.

The scientists said the CDC and OSHA should order the use of N95 masks in hazardous workplaces. Currently, they said, the CDC recommends less effective surgical masks for most health care workers because of the shortage of N95 masks. But scientists said there is now an increase in the supply of N95 masks and that it is time for the CDC and OSHA to require their use in high-risk environments where workers may be exposed to coronavirus aerosols.

In his first full day in office, Biden directed OSHA to issue emergency regulations for Covid-19, which would include ventilation and mask regulations, on March 15th.

“Stronger protection measures are needed immediately to limit exposure and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to control and end the COVID-19 pandemic,” the scientists wrote to the administration. “Action is needed to better protect workers and the public from exposure to inhalation of the virus.”