LeadingAge National Calls for Updates to CDC Respiratory Virus Guidance

(Aug. 5, 2025) On Aug. 1, 2025, LeadingAge National sent a letter to the newly confirmed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Susan Monarez, urging swift updates to outdated infection control and respiratory virus guidance for health care settings, in advance of the upcoming respiratory virus season. The letter details the pressing need for revised guidelines that reflect current scientific understanding and better serve both older adults and the health care workforce.

The current guidance, which includes COVID-specific recommendations related to resident isolation and outbreak response, was last updated in May 2023. Guidance governing return-to-work timing for health care staff infected with COVID was last updated in September 2022. Since those updates, scientific knowledge and therapeutic interventions have advanced. Nevertheless, the outdated CDC guidance remains the national standard that is enforced through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and state survey activities. LeadingAge National's letter highlighted the negative impacts of prolonged isolation on nursing home residents' well-being and the additional strain on staffing levels created by the work exclusion guidance.

LeadingAge National and LeadingAge NY advanced recommendations to update the CDC guidance to the CDC's Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) last year. In November 2024, HICPAC approved a draft revision to the work exclusion guidance. That guidance has not yet been adopted, and HICPAC was terminated in May 2025.

Read the letter here.