News article:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/health/cdc-updated-guidance-covid-isolation/index.html
Quarantine & Isolation page from CDC:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html
There are various sections on the page depending on what applies to people.
Quarantine
Quarantine is a strategy used to prevent transmission of COVID-19 by keeping people who have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 apart from others.
Isolation
Isolation is used to separate people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 from those without COVID-19.
For those in isolation because they are confirmed to have it, or are suspected to have it, then there are various sections:
- Ending isolation for people who had COVID-19 and had symptoms
- Ending isolation for people who tested positive for COVID-19 but had no symptoms
- Ending isolation for people who were severely ill with COVID-19 or have a weakened immune system (immunocompromised)
- Isolation in high-risk congregate settings
For those confirmed to have gotten it (or are suspected to have gotten it), and had symptoms, the current guidance as of posting as it relates to testing is:
"If an individual has access to a test and wants to test, the best approach is to use an antigen test towards the end of the 5-day isolation period. Collect the test sample only if you are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and your other symptoms have improved (loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation). If your test result is positive, you should continue to isolate until day 10. If your test result is negative, you can end isolation, but continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others at home and in public until day 10. Follow additional recommendations for masking and restricting travel as described above."
I'm not going to include everything in that section, or any of the content from any other sections as it is best to look at that page. It updated since I posted about that page two days ago.
Testing is still not a requirement. I wouldn't even call that a recommendation. "If an individual has access to a test and wants to test". With there being difficulty in the testing process for some people, such as in getting them or getting the results in a timely manner, I think part of the reason is because there remains testing issues.
Two years into this pandemic and we still haven't gotten to where we need to be on testing or the ability to vaccinate people worldwide as often as we need to be. (among other things, like enough medical supplies and general supply chain issues)
Someone in the UK who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has said "We can't vaccinate the planet every four to six months. It's not sustainable or affordable".
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/health/andrew-pollard-booster-vaccines-feasibility-intl/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59865108
It's been going around today so I thought I would post about it. I just disagree. We should have been ramping up our ability to produce more of things, including vaccines. Then the big challenge would continue to be distribution around the world. Already there have been issues where a lot of vaccine doses have been destroyed because they expired before they could get distributed in poorer parts of the world. We don't know how the virus will change over time. We should have been putting a lot more into the effort of producing things we needed. A lot more could have been built by now.
I also disagree with some other things that person said:
But Pollard struck an optimistic note in his interview. The "worst is behind us" and the world "just needs to get through the winter," he said.
"At some point, society has to open up," he added. "When we do open, there will be a period with a bump in infections, which is why winter is probably not the best time."
Everyone is tired of the pandemic, but we need to continue to be realistic and plan for the worst. We should be producing so much of things related to the pandemic that some sit empty. (realistically they would be making a lot of things we could stockpile, like medical supplies) Unfortunately the virus right now is rampant. If hospitals get full there should be more restrictive measures in those areas. We should have things like masking and vaccine mandates, and some areas do to at least some extent, but we're just going to be in a period where a lot of people get it right now. If we are at a million confirmed cases right now, it's going to be a lot more that just didn't have the chance to be tested. (7 day average will be less and is a better metric, but we can't ignore these high jumps even if it could be related to not all the cases coming from the same day) We're lucky that the predominate variant seems to be less deadly overall, but it is still deadly to some. Convincing the unvaccinated is going to be a slow process and for most of them we will likely never convince them. Hopefully when those in the more developed world get into a routine of getting vaccinated it will impact us less over time as more people start to decide to get vaccinated. (and importantly those that have continue to get boosted which will be very important going forward) But we just don't know what the next variant will be. This is just going to be something we deal with for a long time to come. It very well may start to get better though after this winter. And then hopefully next winter won't be as bad as this one. Things will hopefully improve compared to prior periods most of the time, with what new variants exist being the wildcard, but I think routine boosters is going to need to be part of that. People need to get used to that. For those that have some mild effects to the boosters, they should be able to get a day or two off from work. Shutting things down constantly isn't something that people are going to be be okay with in this country, so really it's likely only going to be when hospitals gets full (or near it), and even then many areas won't do that. Schools are probably the most complicated. Kids do seem to learn better at school, but I think everyone involved at the very least needs to have the option to do remote learning. And with the complexity of having a hybrid of in person and remote, it's just easier to choose one or the other. And for the safest option, giving the number of kids that haven't been vaccinated, an explosion of new cases and some uncertainties about the impact of the new variant on kids, I think remote is the way to go for now. At least not while we have a million new cases every day. We can't go on like that forever or we really will reach a high level of herd immunity for a bit. Of course there will also be reinfections too after awhile. I know of some people in my extended family who have gotten it multiple times already, but they were vaccinated and boosted and they did well. If everyone did get vaccinated and boosted continuously this might be something where it might be closer to being compared to a flu for most people. There would still be a lot of deaths, but mostly all the unvaccinated. People who continuously got boosters when needed would stay home from work for 5 to 10 days when they got it and would likely be okay because they did the right thing. There might still be a couple hundred thousands deaths, but maybe not. It might get down to a level like some of the deadliest flu seasons. (and with some of the things like monoclonal antibodies and the new pill out, maybe things will get a lot better in regards to deaths too) We just don't know. But there is optimism if people do the right thing when it comes to being vaccinated. Having filled hospitals puts a lot of strain on medical professionals. People don't get things like routine screenings they should be getting. More people die when they put off things like that and other treatments. (and they might not have a choice, some hospitals have to not treat some people due to being full) If we all got vaccinated and boosted as needed, we would have period of a lot of people infected at times (likely in the winter), but the hospitals wouldn't be full usually. Things could get back to something close to the normal we know. (with the understanding that a new variant could come along and things might need to get more restrictive again for a bit)
Of course the rest of the world needs to be vaccinated too, and boosted as much as possible. New variants are more likely to develop when you have a greater number of people getting the virus. So we in the developed world, as we get boosted again and again, we need to make sure that we continue to assist everyone else. It's going to be far from perfect, but we can't give up on that. Things would be a lot worse right now if we didn't have people as vaccinated and boosted as we have them now. People wouldn't be having mild cases in which within 5 days they're usually doing much better. We're going to have periods where a lot of people are getting a new variant and we don't want to have less of an immune response because we aren't boosting people like we should. That applies to everywhere, but unfortunately the rich countries just have an advantage. We should make use of it and not choose to be stupid instead. And then not forget everyone else in the world. (either for altruistic reasons or because we don't want to make it easier for a new variant to develop)
I've mentioned it before, even briefly in this post, but people should not put off routine checkups. Most especially if you have insurance and it's free. (People should really look into getting insurance if they don't have it. https://www.healthcare.gov/ For many they could get it at a very affordable price if they make a certain amount, but not more than a certain amount) And people should get routine checkups not just during the pandemic, but in general if they never have before.
For example, for women:
"Under the Affordable Care Act, women's preventive health care - such as mammograms, screenings for cervical cancer, prenatal care, and other services - generally must be covered with no cost sharing."
From:
https://www.hrsa.gov/womens-guidelines/index.html
For example, 1 in 8 women in the U.S. get breast cancer during their lifetime, and depending on your age a mammogram is free for those with insurance. You want to catch things like that as early as possible.
Preventive health services:
https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits/
"Most health plans must cover a set of preventive services - like shots and screening tests - at no cost to you. This includes plans available through the Health Insurance Marketplace".
You should get a free annual wellness visit with your insurance. I do every year. Just be careful when you go to your doctor and wear a double mask perhaps. |