Occupational Safety and Health Administration hearings on Thursday were held to determine rules for managing COVID-19 in healthcare settings, with multiple experts giving their testimony on what needs to be done to keep healthcare workers safe and reduce transmission.
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One essential part of that discussion was air flow, and how to manage the air quality in these places to diminish the spread of the virus.
One such expert present at the hearings, Dr. Kim Prather, Director of the National Science Foundation's Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment and the Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry at the UC San Diego, expanded on her findings on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" on Friday.
"They're listening, but a lot needs to be done," Prather told Holly Quan and Jason Brooks. The section where Prather presented took over two hours, which she hadn’t expected, she said.
"California's done better than most, because we've had our own standard, but even with that, a lot of hospitals have stuck with what we call 'droplet dogma,'" she said, with the focus less on air quality in these spaces and more on "spray" that comes out of people.
The hearings on Thursday focused instead on improving the air in places where healthcare workers are doing their jobs, including hospital staff, adminstrators, and cleaning crews.
While there has been a lot of care taken for COVID-19 specific wards and people coming to and from those infected with the virus, this care should be applied throughout the building.
"Some parts of the hospital, like labor and delivery, could have more COVID-19 floating in the air than the places where you know the sick people are," said Prather.
A lot of changes need to be made, she said, like they would with any other respiratory virus that floats in the air. "For some reason there's just been this massive resistance against doing that," she said.
One key element of the Thursday hearing was the need to update the six-foot, 15-minute "magic" rule that was based on research from before the delta variant outbreak, said Prather. The six-foot social distancing and amount of time estimated for transmission to take place has not been reevaluated for some time, she said.
"It was based on studies one hundred years ago," said Prather. "Yes, distance is always good because you're going to get the most exposure when you're right next to somebody."
But this doesn’t make much of a difference when someone is in a crowded room with poor ventilation for a long period of time, she said.
"When you are in a room with an infectious individual, you all share the air," said Prather. It's harder to gauge when people are outdoors, as the air dissipates faster, but being downwind from an infectious person can also be a risk.
"There are now cases where people are catching it outdoors dining," she said. But it is still far safer to be outside in public places, she added. The goal is to get indoor air to mirror outdoor air.
Based on the recent discussion, experts are considering dropping that length advisement for distancing altogether.
If different action had been taken far sooner into the pandemic, if officials had listened to air quality experts, lives could have been saved.
"It's in the air, get it out of the air, and give people proper protection," said Prather. "We know how to do it, we know how to fix it, so it's been very, very frustrating that we keep seeing it going on and on, it just doesn’t have to."
And with this newest, even more contagious variant, masking and all the other safety precautions may not even be enough, as experts are considering if the virus can be transmitted through the eyes.
"There are starting to be little hints that the eyes are important areas," she said. "If the aerosols are concentrated enough."
This is leading to some people going so far as to wear glasses or goggles, particularly in places like airplanes, she said.
"I am starting to think it could be why there's this mystery of how these people that have been safe the whole time, aren't," said Prather.
In light of the discussions at Thursday's hearing, OSHA is trying to move as quickly as it can to make changes, she said, but they are already behind.
Testimony is continuing until early next week, and then there will be a three week period where more information can be included into the docket, and then it will be reviewed before decisions are made.
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