‘Every society creates its own pathology’: Mayo Clinic vaccine specialist says not to blame CDC for reducing COVID-19 isolation times

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It’s easy to point fingers.

This week, U.S. health officials cut isolation times for Americans who test positive for COVID-19 but show no symptoms from 10 to five days, and also cut the time close contacts need to self -quarantine.

After those five days, Americans should still wear a mask around others for an additional five days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday. People who have a fever should always self-isolate beyond five days until their symptoms subside, the agency said.

The new policy comes just days after the CDC announced that health workers who had previously contracted the coronavirus, but tested negative and had no symptoms, could return to work after seven days instead of 10 days.

Early studies suggest that many people who contract the omicron variant will have less severe symptoms and many will have no symptoms, but the highly contagious variant is quickly becoming the dominant strain in Europe and the United States.

“Day one is the first full day after your symptoms start, but it’s really day 6.”

– Dr Gregory Poland, who studies the immunogenetics of the vaccine response at the Mayo Clinic

Dr Gregory Poland, who studies the immunogenetics of the vaccine response at the Mayo Clinic, agrees the CDC’s new recommendations are frustrating. “The guidelines change and get confused,” he told MarketWatch.

The guidelines and the behavior of the public are far from perfect, he said. “Day 1 is the first full day after your symptoms start, but it’s really day 6. They’ll dismiss that and say, ‘I don’t want to be quarantined. “It’s going to get complicated.”

What about the new recommendations? “They say to wear a mask, but that doesn’t say to wear an appropriate mask correctly. How many of those who wear a mask wear an appropriate mask? Even less. How many correctly wear an appropriate mask? Even less.”

“In a crisis situation, they are very liberal because they cannot afford to have people taking time off work,” he said. “It was born out of necessity. What do you do when there are no health workers to work, or too few? Something is better than nothing. “

Dr Gregory Poland: “What do you do when there are no healthcare workers to work, or too few? “Something is better than nothing.”

Public health authorities in the United States are, according to experts, trying to balance what we know about the omicron variant with the needs of hospitals, airlines, retailers and other businesses suffering from a shortage of staff.

On December 21, Delta Air Lines DAL, + 1.53% General Manager Ed Bastian, Medical Advisor Carlos del Rio and Health Director Henry Ting wrote to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, imploring her to reconsider isolation times recommended by the agency.

“This guidance was developed in 2020 when the pandemic was in a different phase without effective vaccines and treatments. At Delta, over 90% of our workforce is fully immunized and these rates are increasing daily, ”they wrote.

“Similar to the workforce in healthcare, police, fire and public transport, Omicron’s push can exacerbate shortages and create significant disruption,” they added. “All airline personnel are required to mask themselves at airports and on planes. “

“These guidelines were developed in 2020 when the pandemic was in a different phase without effective vaccines and treatments. ”

– Letter dated December 21 from the management of Delta Air Lines to the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky

Poland shares its frustration: “This is fundamentally driven by the inability of public health authorities to communicate clearly the changing nature of COVID and the reluctance of the population to follow public health recommendations. “

“It’s a globe that’s a Petri dish, teeming with COVID,” Poland added. “Because people weren’t taking precautions and because people weren’t vaccinated, we had continued recirculation of this virus.”

This is the fifth worrying variant. “Omicron appears to primarily infect cells in the upper respiratory tract of the lungs,” he said. “What happens if it infects the lower respiratory tract?” Then you have omicron transmission with delta severity. “

The CDC’s decision to shorten isolation times received backlash from some members of the public, with many critics taking to Twitter TWTR, -1.99% to say that Delta Air’s management letter Lines influenced his decision.

Dr Luis Ostrosky, division director and professor of infectious diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas at Houston, told MarketWatch that the new guidelines build on recent science on omicron.

The period of highest infectivity ranges from two days before symptoms to three days after symptoms, he said, and the new efficacy estimates for vaccines and boosters (75% for people who received the reminder for acquisition of the disease).

The guidelines, he said, “respond to the very real need to put people back to work and into the community in a safe manner.” It also takes into account that vaccines and boosters offer a very high level of protection against hospitalization and death.

The longer the isolation, the more cases you will pick up. “Even at 14 days, people go through it,” said Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of the Mount Sinai South Nassau Department of Medicine. And the shorter the isolation? The opposite is true.

“Even at 14 days, people go through. ”

– Dr Aaron Glatt, Director of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau

Isolation time depends on the severity of the COVID-19 infection. “All guidelines are, by definition, guidelines. They must be individualized, ”he added. An immunocompromised person, for example, can be contagious for a longer time.

Poland said the recommendations “are not optimal, they are based on probabilities in order to maintain the economy and maintain the capacity for medical care, and in the hope that people will be more willing to follow less guidelines. expensive “.

“In Chicago, pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 have tripled in the past week. Hospitals in many areas are in a state of emergency. We have four states that have higher COVID peaks than at any time during this pandemic. ”

For those who are angry with the CDC and the government, Poland recommends people do some soul searching. “Each society creates its own pathology. It is really quite simple. Wear a mask and receive a free vaccine. It’s maddening.

“There is nothing you can say to move people,” he told MarketWatch. “They’re firmly stuck in their rabbit hole until this happens to them. Then they call me up and tell me I want everything science can do, but it’s too late.

Related:

Vaccines help reduce transmission and hospitalization of COVID-19, but they can have important side benefits

I have a fake COVID-19 vaccine card. My best friend doesn’t want to talk to me. Don’t I have the right to make these decisions for myself?

‘Guess I’m not going home’: Thousands more flights were canceled Monday as omicron affects airline staff

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