The bill evolved from an earlier one that would have required states to enforce guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC standards, developed last summer, call on infected health workers to avoid “exposure prone” procedures, such as surgery. The new measure doesn’t impose any single model of infection control; it simply requires the states to adopt their own plans within the next year. To most experts, the crucial question is whether health workers are observing the routine precautions that can keep the virus from spreading. Yet, until now, the debate has centered on mandatory testing. Finally, sighs one congressional staffer, “sanity prevailed.”
