Photo Credit: Mike Blake | Reuters
The country should abandon its Covid-19 restrictions, such as social seclusion and quarantine procedures, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, the organization advised the government to concentrate on resolving the consequences of the diseases brought on by the virus at this time.
The social distance rule, one of the extensively used measures to halt the spread of Covid-19, was one of the revised suggestions included in a new guideline that the CDC announced last Thursday.
This advice, coming from one of the leading health organizations in the nation, is a sign that the US is making headway in its fight against COVID-19. Almost all people living in the US have obtained immunity to the virus due to the vaccination.
Greta Massetti, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch, noted that the pandemic’s present circumstances are substantially different from those of the previous two years.
“High levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection and the many available tools to protect the general population, and protect people at higher risk, allow us to focus on protecting people from serious illness from Covid-19.”
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The new guidelines by the CDC
The CDC’s updated recommendations further stated that contact tracing and routine Covid-19 testing should only be carried out in high-risk areas going forward. Hospitals, nursing homes, and jails are a few examples. Additionally, it has downplayed several quarantine regulations, such as the one that exempts exposed but negative people from quarantine.
Certain elements have changed, notwithstanding the CDC’s updated set of recommendations. For instance, the CDC continues to advise anyone exhibiting symptoms to get tested for Covid-19. In addition, if someone is diagnosed with COVID, they should spend five days at home and wear a face mask for ten days.
The guidelines for isolating afflicted people have also changed. Hospitalized patients and those with mild symptoms should stay in their homes for at least ten days. Immunocompromised individuals should consult their doctors before being released from isolation.
The CDC is only going with what the public is doing
The CDC’s guidelines serve as an indication that public health authorities have already embraced Covid as a part of society and have determined that it will remain in the affected nations permanently. The suggested safety precautions could be a step toward minimizing disruptions to work and academic activities while coexisting with the virus. Other specialists, though, hold a different opinion.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, said, “I think they just overall come into alignment with what people are doing anyway. What the CDC is, in my opinion, trying to do, they are trying to still be relevant, and maybe when they say something, people will listen to them instead of being completely 180 degrees away from what behavior is anyway.”
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“I think that this is a point where you actually have to sort of get real and start giving people tools they can use to do something or not. Because otherwise, people will just will not take you seriously,” an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said.
“This revision does not go anywhere near enough to correct the problems of flawed recommendations and lack of evidence,” stated Dr. Eric Topol, Scripps Research Institute cardiologist.
CDC tells public of their safety advice
The CDC advised that procedures to stop the spread of Covid-19 and treat it should continue.
“These recent changes recognize the importance of protecting those most at risk of severe illness, while also standardizing some basic good public health hygiene for the long-term for those less at risk,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, National Association of County and City Health Officials CEO.
“It’s important that we make it as easy as possible for people to continue to protect themselves and others around them as we live with Covid,” added Freeman.
Source: CNN
