Weekly Rounds with Infection Control Today: Infection Preventionists and Omicron, Cloth Masks Are Useless, Supreme Court Ruling

Here are 5 highlights from ICT®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.

What Infection Preventionists Must Do in Current Omicron Crisis

Infection prevention and control experts offer their peers advice on how to handle overcrowding at hospitals and what to do about masking.

Cloth Masks Are Useless Against COVID-19 (Redux): Omicron Version

Omicron and an ample supply of N95s and KN95s might lead the CDC to change masking recommendations for the public this week to say that individuals should wear those masks.

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Worker COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Health care workers who work at facilities that care for patients who have Medicare or Medicaid must get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Delta, Omicron Coinfection Could Create a Super-Variant

Delta and Omicron coinfection is one of several concerns voiced by Paul Burton, MD, the chief medical officer at Moderna, to a panel of lawmakers in the United Kingdom.

Viewpoint: Omicron Surges Because Prevention Practices Drifted

As infection preventionists, we need to request that hospitals dust off the practices that were implemented during 2020. We need to reiterate that vaccination does not prevent infections, only severe illness.