The CDC may be reconsidering its guidance
Is COVID-19 really that bad? An occupational epidemiologist says changing the CDC guidance could have a big impact on workplace policies
If the guidance change goes through, the CDC will be effectively treating COVID-19 more like flu, says Nuzzo. But she and other health experts wonder whether that’s the right model, given that the status quo of influenza results in many illnesses and deaths.
Public health experts say that a change in the CDC guidance could have a big impact on workplace policies. Workers may be forced to go to work while still sick if the CDC doesn’t recommend staying home for a week. They might spread the coronavirus to others.
“I think people forget that it’s not ok to be moving around when you’re infectious because of the risks to vulnerable people and the risk of long COVID,” she says. “We can’t go back to ignoring those who are immunocompromised, those who are too young or too old and rely on protecting themselves through community protection.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is likely to drop its isolation advice for people with COVID-19. The planned change was reported in The Washington Post on Tuesday, attributed to several unnamed CDC officials.
If this change takes place, it shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that COVID-19 is less contagious, says Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.
This policy change could be related to the fact that the impacts of spreading COVID-19 are less consequential than they used to be. Deaths and hospitalizations went up this winter, but nowhere near as high as they did in previous years. Hospitals were mostly ok this year despite the virus season.
Changing the guidance may reflect the reality that many Americans, who weren’t necessarily following it. It takes a lot of work to Isolation is really hard, and it takes a lot of work. He was on day nine of COVID when he spoke to NPR and had spent the first five days isolating at home. He worked, ate and slept alone in order to protect his family.
“For a lot of people, it’s not possible — how they live, where they live, how many people are in the household, their jobs — whether they have paid leave, whether they could work virtually,” he says.
Public health should be guided and not discouraged when testing COVID – comment on Malaty Rivera, an advisor to the de Beaumont Foundation
Testing is more expensive and harder to get, so people don’t take the steps to isolates if they know they have it.
Jessica Malaty Rivera, an advisor to the de Beaumont Foundation, says that the federal government’s public health advice should be guiding people, not discouraging them.
She says it’s like saying that people don’t wear seat belts so it doesn’t matter. Public health still has responsibility of providing evidence based information despite that.
And it makes it harder on people who are especially vulnerable: individuals who are very young, very old, immunocompromised or with underlying medical conditions.
The report has not yet been confirmed by the CDC. The CDC has no updates to COVID guidelines to announce at this time, an agency spokesman wrote in an email. We will continue to make decisions based on the best evidence and science to keep communities healthy and safe.”
People who test positive are warned to stay away from others for at least a day to reduce the risk of spreading the coronaviruses. The unnamed officials told the Post that the agency will advise people to rely on symptoms instead. If a person doesn’t have a fever and the person’s symptoms are mild or resolving, they could still go to school or work. Changes could come as early as April.
A change in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance may have a big impact on workplace policies because of the risks to vulnerable people, Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University School of Public Health said. “If this change takes place, it shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that COVID-19 is less contagious,” she added.