The dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health said Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should have updated its guidelines on cleaning household surfaces well.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Dr. Ashish Jha told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith”. “I think I started saying by April and May, a lot of us who have public health stop wiping surfaces.”
“I really do not understand why CDC took so long to be really clear. This virus is spreading through the air,” Jha said.
The CDC said Monday that a thorough soap-and-water scrub is sufficient to prevent Covid-19 from spreading into the home. However, disinfectants are recommended in indoor schools and homes where there has been a suspected or confirmed virus case within 24 hours.
“In most situations, regular cleaning of surfaces with soap and detergent, not necessarily disinfection of the surfaces, is sufficient to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, said at an information session in the White House on Monday.
Jha noted that the CDC’s public health messages were part of a larger pattern of bad messages from the government regarding Covid.
“I would say the first few months are confusing, but by April, May last year, it was very clear that it was in the air,” Jha said. “It was frustrating that it didn’t always come out consistently with our federal officials.”
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Host Shepard Smith also questioned Jha about the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant after Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy, warned on Sunday that the variant could infect children more easily than previous strains.
Jha said he is “concerned” about the B.1.1.7 variant in children, especially since they have not been vaccinated yet.
“We do not see many infections in older people because we get them vaccinated, and that leaves young adults and children really vulnerable to B.1.1.7,” Jha noted. “One of the reasons we can not completely relax now is that we really need to lower these infection rates.”
CDC data show that each state in the country reported at least one case of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom. Walensky said on Wednesday that the variant is becoming the predominant Covid tribe in many regions in the US