Group of experts petition WHO to advocate for universal respirator use in health care

A global group of experts in medicine, public health, law, industrial hygiene, and other disciplines issued an open letter last Wednesday to top officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) that calls for the “universal use of respirators in health care.”

The signatories expressed “deep concern — and with sincere hope for change — regarding the World Health Organization’s historical and ongoing position on failing to advocate for the use of respirators in healthcare settings.”

They summarized their primary points as follows: “(1) Surgical masks provide inadequate protection against airborne pathogens; (2) the current WHO guidelines are harming healthcare workers and patients; and (3) WHO as a global healthcare safety leader has the power to reduce disease burden in healthcare settings through more effective advocacy.”

They write that WHO “should lead decisively toward safer health care by establishing respirators as the universal default for all healthcare encounters, with clearly defined, locally-determined off-ramps based on transparent risk indicators and the use of effective engineering controls. This recommendation would align WHO policy with science and existing safety standards and would improve safety for both patients and healthcare providers.”

The letter proceeds to support this rationale in much more detail, including a seven-step plan that the signatories believe WHO should implement.

Organized via the World Health Network organization, the letter is said to be supported by more than 2,300 signatories worldwide, including healthcare workers, researchers, educators, patients, and “concerned members of the global health community.” It was signed by seven individuals, including Yaneer Bar-Yam, PhD, co-founder of World Health Network and professor and president of New England Complex Systems Institute; Adam M. Finkel, ScD, CIH, clinical professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health; Liza K. Tóth, JD, BSc (Chem), a retired U.S. Intellectual Property Attorney and World Health Network member; and Joe Vipond, MD, FCFP, CCFP (EM), BSc (hon), clinical assistant professor of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Calgary and co-chair and co-founder of the Canadian Covid Society.

American experts who endorsed the letter include Samuel R. Bagenstos, JD, Frank G. Millard Professor of Law at the University of Michigan; Lisa M Brosseau, ScD, CIH, Professor (retired), owner of Colfax South LLC and research consultant at the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy; Gregg Gonsalves, PhD, associate professor, epidemiology of microbial diseases at Yale School of Public Health; Michael Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA, program lead for cancer population science at Tulane Cancer Center; Jonathan Howard, MD, chief of neurology at Bellevue Hospital; Jose L. Jimenez, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado; Kristin Shrader-Frechette, PhD, O’Neill Family Professor Emerita, Department of Philosophy and Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame; and Lawrence Sloan, MBA, CAE, FASAE, CEO of the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Read the full letter here.