Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Jun 17, 2024 2:54:12 GMT
COVID-19 is Still a Threat. So is Biden’s CDC. - Published Mar 27, 2024
On March 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a pretty astonishing—and dangerous—announcement. In a major adjustment to its guidelines around COVID-19, the agency said that people who test positive for the disease no longer need to self-isolate for 5 days, as it had previously recommended. Instead, the CDC now says people can “go back to [their] normal activities” as long as their “symptoms are getting better overall,” and as long as they “have not had a fever” for at least 24 hours. In other words, the CDC is explicitly saying that it’s okay for people who are still sick to go into their workplaces and work their usual shifts, if they take “added precautions.”
This is just the latest in a long series of disturbing moves from the CDC, and the logic behind the agency’s decision falls apart the moment you start to poke at it. What, for instance, does “better overall” even mean? If someone has a horrible hacking cough on Tuesday, but it’s somewhat less severe on Wednesday, does that mean they’re “getting better overall” and should go to work? Under the new guidelines, an employer could argue that it does. But the person would still be infectious, and still pose a health risk to everyone around them. As epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding has noted, the guidelines are “clear as mud” and “CONFUSING & VAGUE ON PURPOSE,” with a “myriad of loopholes and subjective interpretations” employers can use to push workers into unsafe situations. In a striking rebuke, the National Nurses United labor union has condemned the new guidelines, with President Jean Ross (a registered nurse herself) saying that she’s “deeply disheartened to once again see the CDC weakening protections for public health.”
To justify the change, the CDC makes a few basic arguments. (Or rather, excuses.) First, it says that “We have more and better tools and protection to fight serious respiratory illness” than before, including vaccines and medicines like Paxlovid. It then goes on to claim that “COVID-19 health impacts are now increasingly similar to other respiratory viruses, like flu.” But neither of these statements is exactly true. In the first place, having better medications and other methods to treat a medical condition does not logically mean we should stop trying to avoid the condition in the first place. Just because you have burn gel and bandages in your cupboard, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to slap your hand down on a hot frying pan. Meanwhile, where “health impacts” are concerned, it would be more accurate to say they aren’t fully understood. Nobody knows exactly how damaging “long COVID” —which has affected at least 6.9 percent of U.S. adults—can be to the human body, because nobody’s had to deal with the virus and its aftereffects for longer than a few years. The evidence we do have, though, is worrying. Some studies show that COVID-19 literally causes brain cells to fuse together, possibly leading to cognitive damage of unknown extent. In its own materials, the Cleveland Clinic emphasizes that COVID infection can lead to a higher risk of heart attack, “even in people who have mild cases.” It’s nasty stuff, and certainly not just a mild case of the flu.1
On March 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a pretty astonishing—and dangerous—announcement. In a major adjustment to its guidelines around COVID-19, the agency said that people who test positive for the disease no longer need to self-isolate for 5 days, as it had previously recommended. Instead, the CDC now says people can “go back to [their] normal activities” as long as their “symptoms are getting better overall,” and as long as they “have not had a fever” for at least 24 hours. In other words, the CDC is explicitly saying that it’s okay for people who are still sick to go into their workplaces and work their usual shifts, if they take “added precautions.”
This is just the latest in a long series of disturbing moves from the CDC, and the logic behind the agency’s decision falls apart the moment you start to poke at it. What, for instance, does “better overall” even mean? If someone has a horrible hacking cough on Tuesday, but it’s somewhat less severe on Wednesday, does that mean they’re “getting better overall” and should go to work? Under the new guidelines, an employer could argue that it does. But the person would still be infectious, and still pose a health risk to everyone around them. As epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding has noted, the guidelines are “clear as mud” and “CONFUSING & VAGUE ON PURPOSE,” with a “myriad of loopholes and subjective interpretations” employers can use to push workers into unsafe situations. In a striking rebuke, the National Nurses United labor union has condemned the new guidelines, with President Jean Ross (a registered nurse herself) saying that she’s “deeply disheartened to once again see the CDC weakening protections for public health.”
To justify the change, the CDC makes a few basic arguments. (Or rather, excuses.) First, it says that “We have more and better tools and protection to fight serious respiratory illness” than before, including vaccines and medicines like Paxlovid. It then goes on to claim that “COVID-19 health impacts are now increasingly similar to other respiratory viruses, like flu.” But neither of these statements is exactly true. In the first place, having better medications and other methods to treat a medical condition does not logically mean we should stop trying to avoid the condition in the first place. Just because you have burn gel and bandages in your cupboard, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to slap your hand down on a hot frying pan. Meanwhile, where “health impacts” are concerned, it would be more accurate to say they aren’t fully understood. Nobody knows exactly how damaging “long COVID” —which has affected at least 6.9 percent of U.S. adults—can be to the human body, because nobody’s had to deal with the virus and its aftereffects for longer than a few years. The evidence we do have, though, is worrying. Some studies show that COVID-19 literally causes brain cells to fuse together, possibly leading to cognitive damage of unknown extent. In its own materials, the Cleveland Clinic emphasizes that COVID infection can lead to a higher risk of heart attack, “even in people who have mild cases.” It’s nasty stuff, and certainly not just a mild case of the flu.1