Is the COVID-19 Exposure Enough? Public Health Perspectives on a Change in the U.S. Covid-19 Guidance
The CDC will treat COVID-19 in the same way as flu if the guidance change goes through. 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 believe a change in CDC guidance could have a big impact on workplace policies. The CDC might no longer recommend staying home for a week if they no longer recommend it. They might spread the coronavirus to others.
“I think people forget the fact that it’s not okay to be moving around if you’re infectious and vulnerable,” 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 may soon drop its isolation guidance for people with COVID-19. Several unnamed CDC officials attributed the planned change to it being reported in The Washington Post.
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.
The policy change under consideration may be a reflection of the fact that the impacts of spreading COVID-19 are less consequential than they used to be, at least from a public health perspective. The number of deaths and hospitalizations increased this winter, but not as much as in the past. In fact, hospitals were mostly OK — not overwhelmed — this virus season.
Changing the guidance may reflect the reality that many Americans, who weren’t necessarily following it. Isolation “is really hard, and it takes a lot of work,” says Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center. When he spoke to NPR he had been at home for five days and had spent the first nine days in Covid. He slept alone and worked to avoid exposing his family.
“For a lot of people, it’s not possible because of where they live and how many people are in the household, their jobs, or both,” he says.
Keeping COVID-19 Known and Ignored: Public Health Advice Needs to be Guided on Socially Assured Risk Factors
In addition, testing is more expensive and harder to access than it used to be, so people may not even know they have COVID-19, let alone take steps to isolate, Parekh says.
Jessica Malaty Rivera believes the federal government’s public health advice should be guiding people, not the other way around, even if many people ignore it.
“It’s like saying, well, people aren’t really wearing a seat belt, so I guess we can say seat belts don’t matter,” she says. The responsibility of public health to provide evidence-based information remains because of that.
It makes it harder on people who are vulnerable, like people who are young, old, or have underlying medical conditions.
The CDC hasn’t yet confirmed the report. In an email, an agency spokesperson wrote that the CDC has “no updates to COVID guidelines to announce at this time. We are going to make decisions based on the best evidence to keep communities safe and healthy.
People who test positive for coronavirus are advised to stay home for at least five days to prevent the spread of the disease. The agency will advise people not to rely on symptoms, the officials told the Post. 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. These changes may come as early as April.