CDC Changes COVID-19 Testing Guidelines Again After Criticism

Getty Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield appears during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on a review of Coronavirus Response Efforts on Capitol Hill, on September 16, 2020, in Washington, DC.

After abandoning its original stance on who should be tested for COVID-19 last month, the Center for Disease Control did a 360 Friday and reverted back to their original recommendation that people who have been within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes should get be tested for COVID-19.

The updated guidance comes on the heels of the CDC’s advice in late August that said even if a person had been in close contact with a person was infected COVID-19, they only needed to be tested if they had symptoms, which flies in the face of the original guidance and the efforts to slow asymptomatic spread.

John Auerbach, president of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, told the Associated Press, “The recommendation not to test asymptomatic people who likely have been exposed is not in accord with the science.”

The testing of asymptomatic patients has been important during the pandemic, with an estimated 40% of those who have COVID-19 being asymptomatic according to the CDC. That’s a lot of people who could be unknowingly spreading the virus, so when the CDC said people who’d been exposed to the virus don’t need to be tested unless they have symptoms, the medical community balked.


The CDC’s Newly Updated Testing Guidance Says People Who’ve Been Exposed Should Self-Isolate for 14 Days Even if Their Test Is Negative

GettyMend Urgent Care workers wearing personal protective equipment perform drive-up COVID-19 testing for students and faculty on the first day of school at Woodbury University on August 24, 2020 in Burbank, California.

The CDC says not only should you be tested if you are in close contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus, but once you know you’ve been exposed you should self-isolate at home and try to stay separated from others who live in the house while you await your test results.

But even a single negative test isn’t enough. According to the CDC, “A single negative test does not mean you will remain negative at any time point after that test. Even if you have a negative test, you should still self-isolate for 14 days.”

Of course, that’s easier said than done for many people. In situations where you can’t self-isolate or you are an essential worker, the CDC recommends you “wear a mask, physically distance, avoid crowds and indoor crowded places, wash your hands frequently, and monitor yourself for symptoms.”

The testing guidelines do not apply to health care workers who treat COVID-19 patients as long as they’re wearing PPE.


The Change in the CDC’s Guidance Highlights the Contention Between the White House & The CDC

coronavirus task force

Getty(From L) ADM Brett P. Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health US Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health; and Dr. Robert Redfield, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testify during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 23, 2020.

According to CBS News, Admiral Brett P. Giroir, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the August guidelines that received backlash from the medical community was signed off on by all members of the coronavirus task force, but one member of the task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was not in on that decision.

Fauci told CNN, “I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations. I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact, it is.”

The decision to return to the original guidance on testing comes after President Donald Trump and CDC Director Robert Redfield publically shared different versions of when the public can expect a coronavirus vaccine. Redfield testified before the U.S. Senate Sept. 16 and said masks may be more effective than a vaccine, even as Trump is known for not embracing the use of masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Redfield also said that he doesn’t expect a viable vaccine until the “second or third quarter” of 2021, whereas Trump had been promising a vaccine in the next couple of months.

According to Yahoo News, Redfield told Congress:

I’m not going to comment directly about the president. But I am going to comment as the CDC director that these face masks are the most powerful public health tool we have and I will continue to appeal to all Americans to embrace these face masks,” Redfield said. “If we did for 6, 8, 10, 12 weeks we’d bring this pandemic under control. I might even go so far as to say that this face covering is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine because the immunogenicity may be 70 percent and if I don’t get an immune response the vaccine’s not going to protect me. This face mask will.

In a press conference after the congressional hearings Wednesday, Trump was asked about Redfield’s comments on the vaccine. According to Yahoo News, he said, “I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information and I called him and he didn’t tell me that and I think he got the message maybe confused, maybe it was stated incorrectly.”

Then on Friday Trump said of vaccines, “We will have manufactured at least 100 million doses by the end of the year, and likely much more than that. Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April,” the NY Post reported.

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