CDC Appears at Odds With Own Expert Advisory Committee Over Masks for Health Care Workers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked its expert advisers to include more recommendations on mask-wearing in guidance for health care workers despite their research suggesting they need only be worn under certain circumstances to protect against coronavirus and common seasonal viral respiratory infections. Two years ago, the health agency selected a group of science experts—known as the CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee—and asked them to update its hospital infection control guidelines, which had not been updated since 2007. The experts have significant knowledge across an array of subjects including infectious diseases, infection prevention and control, health care epidemiology, nursing, clinical and environmental microbiology, health policy, health services research, public health, and more, according to the CDC’s website....