Influenza: Protective Clothing

(asked on 1st March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Independent High Risk AGP Panel Summary of recommendations arising from evidence reviews to date, published on 11 January 2021, what consideration did that Panel give to the Health and Safety Executive’s 2008 report, RR619 Evaluating the protection afforded by surgical masks against influenza bioaerosols in arriving at its conclusions.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 10th March 2021

The Independent High Risk AGP Panel was set up to provide practical and scientific advice to the Chief Medical Officers for the four United Kingdom nations on specific high risk aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is outside the scope of the panel to make recommendations about personal protective equipment use in the context of AGPs. For this reason, the Health and Safety Executive’s 2008 report RR619 was not formally considered in producing the recommendations. These recommendations focussed on specific medical procedures of concern and took into account only peer reviewed publications, as detailed in the systematic review protocol.

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