Expected changes to CDC isolation recommendations
February 26, 2024
Source: Biobot February 22, 2024 LINK
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not revised its recommendations for isolation after testing positive for COVID since 2021 - when the pandemic was quite different than it is now. For instance, in the fall of 2021 there were over 15,000 COVID deaths each week; the death rate is now under 1000 a week. The graphic above shows that viral signal in wastewater is much lower than in early January but remains high.
Multiple media outlets have reported that the CDC will announce revised guidelines, which likely will require people to isolate themselves only until they are free of fever for 24 hours and their symptoms are improving. Current guidelines required masking in public places for 10 days after diagnosis; it is not clear what the new CDC guidelines will say about masking. The CDC has neither confirmed nor denied that it will issue new isolation recommendations.
Two states, California and Oregon, had already quietly moved to new isolation guidelines. Both of those states continue to recommend masking indoors in public for 10 days and also recommend avoiding contact with high risk individuals for 10 days. Oregon has not reported increased rates of death or hospitalization since it changed its isolation policies in May, 2023.
Some public health experts worry that these changes will lead to increased risk for high risk individuals, as people with COVID-19 often remain infectious for up to 12 days. However, there are real problems with the current CDC guidelines, which would keep people with no symptoms from school or work for longer. Perhaps the biggest problem with the current guidelines is that they are increasingly not being followed, and there is no point in promulgating guidelines that are routinely ignored. Many public health experts are satisfied with these new guidelines, although most hope that the CDC will remind people to wear masks indoors in public places if they are infected.
Influenza-like illnesses still represent 4.5% of physician office visits as of the second week of February, so we are not yet through the respiratory virus illness season. COVID vaccines prevent COVID-19 infections, and a recent study showed that those who are vaccinated were 43-58% less likely to get Long COVID.
Implications for employers:
Continue to encourage those who are sick not to come to the workplace. The revised CDC guidelines will NOT tell people who are sick to come to work!
Sick leave can lower the risk of respiratory illnesses spread at the workplace.
Continue to be “mask friendly.” About 3% of US adults are immunocompromised, and face higher risk for severe illness, Long COVID, or death if they get infected with COVID-19. (Note there is a new study in JAMA that suggests the number is more like 7%, largely due to more patients on drugs that cause some immunosuppression. I’ll cover that next week)
Continue to encourage employees to get up-to-date on their COVID vaccinations.
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Tomorrow: Scottish study shows that HPV vaccines prevented cervical cancer in a national population vaccinated before age 14