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GAO report urges OSHA action on persistent risks of infection for meat packing workers; infection risks up to 70 times higher than state averages

Herek L. Clack / June 21, 2023

The General Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report that urges the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to directly address risks faced by meat and poultry processing workers, that were amplified by the COVID pandemic.

Strikingly, the GAO report cites two studies conducted by OSHA’s Office of Occupational Medicine and Nursing that concluded the risk of COVID infection among meat packing plant workers to be 56X to more than 70X greater than the average risk in their respective states. The key characteristics contributing to the higher risk delineated in the report are:

Prolonged proximity. Workers often

CDC-sponsored epidemiology conference confirmed as super-spreader event

Herek Clack / May 31, 2023

The CDC has acknowledged that it is investigating its recent Epidemiology Intelligence Service conference as a potential COVID super-spreader event. Nearly 200 in-person attendees at the conference reported testing positive for COVID in a post-conference survey, after several attendees informed conference organizers of positive COVID test results on the last day of the conference. Fortunately, there were no hospitalizations or deaths reported.

Notable among the post-conference survey results:

> 99% of respondents reported having received at least one vaccine dose
70% of respondents reported not wearing a mask during the conference

This outcome unders

Blurred world map with total number of people infected by coronavirus and statistics of various countries

The next 10 years hold a 1 in 4 chance the world will experience another COVID-like pandemic - study

Herek Clack / May 14, 2023

Climate change, increased international travel, and other factors are what underlie the model projection by Airfinity Ltd. of a 28% chance of another pandemic as deadly as COVID-19 within the next 10 years. The risk drops to single-digit percentages if effective vaccines can be developed and distributed within 100 days - a far shorter period of time than was seen in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ventilation industry organization recommends multifaceted approach to reducing COVID transmission, with focus on protecting breathing zone

Herek Clack / April 1, 2023

ASHRAE (American Society for Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) has more than 50,000 members representing more than 130 countries. The Society and its members “focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability within the industry.” Therefore it was notable that in October, 2022 in response to both the COVID pandemic and rising cases of RSV, the society issued a position document on infectious aerosols that recommended a multi-layered protective approach.

Specifically, while the ASHRAE position document reiterated support for proven building and infrastructure techn

Newly released National Academies report recommends a larger role for EPA in understanding infectious disease transmission

Herek Clack / March 9, 2023

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently released report entitled Transforming EPA Science to Meet Today’s and Tomorrow’s Challenges. The report reflects the findings of a committee, convened by NASEM and of which I was honored to be a member, tasked with providing EPA with recommendations on how to best orient their scientific enterprise to meet their current mission while also anticipating future environmental challenges.

The report recommends, among many recommendations, that EPA leverage its air quality and air pollutant measurement expertise to advance the science of aerobiology and improving our un

Outgoing WHO chief scientist expresses regret over errors made in the debate over airborne transmission of COVID-19

November 30, 2022

The aerosol community has not forgotten how, early in the pandemic, their urgent calls for WHO, CDC, and other agencies to acknowledge the possibility that COVID-19 could be spread through the air - and the tremendous opposition against those calls. The reflections of the outgoing WHO chief scientist only offer further proof that how we view respiratory disease transmission has been fundamentally and permanently changed.

Covid loses 90% of ability to infect within 20 minutes in air – study

Herek Clack / January 11, 2022

Coronavirus loses 90% of its ability to infect us within 20 minutes of becoming airborne – with most of the loss occurring within the first five minutes, the world’s first simulations of how the virus survives in exhaled air suggest.

The findings re-emphasize the importance of short-range Covid transmission, with physical distancing and mask-wearing likely to be the most effective means of preventing infection. Ventilation, though still worthwhile, is likely to have a lesser impact.

“People have been focused on poorly ventilated spaces and thinking about airborne transmission over meters or across a room. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen, but I think still the greatest risk of exposure is when you’re close to someone,” said Prof