It’s been two-and-a-half years. The CDC is finally changing its guidelines regarding quarantine and distancing COVID guidelines:
The nation’s top public health agency relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines Thursday, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6 feet away from others.The changes, which come more than 2 1/2 years after the start of the pandemic, are driven by a recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected, agency officials said.“The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years,” said the CDC’s Greta Massetti, an author of the guidelines.
The CDC dropped its “recommendation that schools do routine daily testing.” But the agency said a school could do it again if it sees a surge in infections.
The agency also dropped its recommendation that schools “test-to-stay” after a student was exposed to COVID.
The CDC still recommends masks “in areas where community transmission is deemed high, or if a person is considered at high risk of severe illness.”
Thankfully, many people have already moved forward and dropped mandates and rules. But there are some people like this one at Dartmouth:
Allowing students to return to school five days after infection, without proof of a negative COVID-19 test, could lead to outbreaks in schools, said Anne Sosin, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College. That could force entire schools to close temporarily if teachers get sick in large numbers, a dilemma that some schools faced last year.“All of us want a stable school year, but wishful thinking is not the strategy for getting there,” she said. “If we want a return to normal in our schools, we have to invest in the conditions for that, not just drop everything haphazardly like we’re seeing across the country.”
The Wall Street Journal quoted Eleanor Murray, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health: “It’s disappointing that the CDC is removing protections and reducing the number of precautions they recommend at a time when cases are continuing to float along at this high level.”
I wonder if Sosin and Murray feel that way about the flu.
If you’re sick, then stay home. If you’re sick, then stay away from people. COVID, flu, common cold, whatever.
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