Some health professionals are surprised by the change in isolation of the CDC due to the unknown Omicron

Health experts are divided over new CDC guidance to shorten quarantine periods for some people with COVID-19: Some see the policy change as an agreement to reality, while some see the policy change as an agreement to reality. others consider it confusing and even irresponsible. Federal health officials on Monday halves the recommended 10-day quarantine period for many infected Americans, saying that those who are asymptomatic — or whose symptoms are improving and do not have a fever — can now stop quarantine after five days as long as they continue to wear masks around other people. “I was a bit surprised they cut it in half with no related testing requirements or based on vaccine status,” he said. Joseph Fauver, a genomic epidemiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told The New York Times of the change, which he called “remarkable.” Epidemiologist Michael Mina going further, saying that the CDC allows people to leave quarantine early without requiring a negative test result is “reckless”, as studies have found variation in how long people are contagious .

Change, follow to the CDC, “driven by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, typically in the 1-2 days before the onset of symptoms and 2-3 days afterward.” The update comes in the middle of a big increase in infections promoted by the omicron variant, although highly transmissible, appears to cause less severe infections. The new guidelines “balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses,” said CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement, to “ensure people can safely continue their daily lives.” Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb underlined that point in The Washington PostThe new guidance reflects the growing reality that we will have to learn to live with Covid as a persistent risk and cannot let it shut down society. Airlines, restaurants and healthcare systems have been among the industries most affected by omicron-related staff shortages in recent weeks. Some suspect The economic burden is at least partly behind the CDC’s policy shift.

“We know people who have been vaccinated, and people who have been infected and previously vaccinated, are more likely to contract the virus for less time,” Gottlieb points out. But for some health professionals, with the unknowns surrounding the omicron, especially for the unvaccinated, the policy change seems abrupt. Megan Ranney, Brown University Vice Chancellor for Public Health, told CNN that “for the unvaccinated, the data doesn’t really back up that they were not infected after five days.” Health officials should update their recommendations as more about the virus becomes known, Ranney said, but she wishes the CDC had done so “in a way that benefits the vaccinated person and doesn’t put the rest of the population in danger.” We are at risk.” (She also notes that she’s “a bit worried” about the CDC saying everyone should wear masks for another 5 days: “You and I both know how often unvaccinated people wear masks in public. plus now,” Ranney told CNN. Jake Tapper.)

Unvaccinated people are five times more likely to test positive and 14 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated. each CDC. Widely circulated Twitter thread about his recent shifts at the ER, Columbia University Medical Center Craig Spencer pointed out that “every patient I’ve seen with Covid who received the 3rd ‘boost’ dose had mild symptoms” and had no shortness of breath or shortness of breath, and those who had received two doses of Pfizer or Moderna generally “slightly more miserable” than the booster patients, but still not short of breath or short of breath, he said, but it’s a different story for those who haven’t had any doses of the vaccine. “Almost every patient I have cared for who needs to be hospitalized for Covid has been unvaccinated,” Spencer wrote.

While The Washington Post also report According to international studies and initial data from several US hospitals, healthy vaccinated individuals, and especially those who have been boosted, are unlikely to need to be hospitalized for omicrons, whereas photo The effect of the latest variant on older, at-risk populations is still to be seen. “In a way, this is almost like an calculus problem. It has a lot of moving parts and we’re trying to figure it out,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Among the factors that can determine someone’s level of risk include age, vaccination status or booster shots, and underlying health problems, Osterholm tells WebMD. Post. “I think it is difficult, because they are trying to prepare for a crisis situation,” the virologist Jeremy Kamil Talk to Times Guidelines have changed by federal health officials. “There are so many unknowns.”

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