Well at least the CDC is being honest that we’re all screwed. They basically said their decision to change the isolation period from 10 to 5 days was driven by the fact that everyone will call out sick in the next few weeks. From the Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/…. For those who can’t look behind the paywall:
Health officials’ recommendation this week to shorten the isolation period for people with asymptomatic coronavirus infections to five days was driven largely by the concern that essential services might be hobbled amid one of the worst infection surges of the pandemic, said senior officials familiar with the discussions.
The administration’s top health officials met over Christmas weekend to discuss the trajectory of the U.S. outbreak, with several expressing fear about how high case levels might climb in the coming weeks, according to four senior officials briefed on the discussion. They worried the sheer volume of infections could mean that tens of thousands of police, firefighters, grocery workers and other essential employees would be out of work, making it challenging to keep society functioning, even though many of the infections would be mild or produce no symptoms, the officials said.
To add the CDC revised the percentage of Omicron cases last week from 73% to 22%. Seems like a big difference. Source: www.reuters.com/...
This is a really bad look. Whether the media misreported the information or not, I don’t know. But it is a bad look or bad PR or something to adjust the numbers so much. To add, most people are seeing through the change in quarantine not as a measure to protect individuals from spreading disease but as an attempt to keep essential systems working. People on twitter are making fun of the CDC, and in my opinion rightfully so. Example:
Meanwhile the closings have started. In my area a brewery can’t open because employees can’t get tests. The horror! www.wral.com/… But again, this is a preview, and we make fun of the impact of a microbrewery not being able to open, but this is about to be common. In New Jersey a Walmart closed because 90 employees called out sick. www.nbcnewyork.com/…. This is coming at a larger scale as cases go up the next few weeks.
Stay safe.