Yes, this brings the CDC guidelines for COVID into line with guidelines for RSV and influenza.
It's not just that is COVID more severe. The guidelines for RSV and influenza are not right either. We need universal paid sick leave, not permission to return to work while still contagious.
My husband has had COVID since Monday night and as of now I do not have it. He says his symptoms have abated so... According to the CDC he can just come out now?
The point is the CDC is not providing science-based recommendations here. People who test positive should not be around other people whenever possible.
I sent a note to the President some time back asking that he request the current CDC director step down and then find someone who would prioritize the science and help keep Americans safe and well informed. There are enough people pushing junk science and myths to gullible people.
“… fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medications and if their symptoms are improving …. Covid, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, among other respiratory ailments …”
5 days mask etc for ALL respiratory viruses. No testing.
I approve.
Looking back at the moment we all realized that masks and paid sick leave cancelled an entire flu season and we thought we would have a nearly flu-free future because now that we had this great information why would we go back?
Except it's the MAGA worshippers and their business cronies driving this - they want their workers back under their corporate thumb - if they start dying, so what? They've set up socio-economic conditions so they produce endless supplies of low-income fodder to throw in their industrial grist mill.
Disagree with this framing. Biden vocally urged people to go back to the office and is enacting that with federal employees despite massive unpopularity. He believes in the capitalist grind.
The constitutional limits of executive authority & federalism have a lot more to do with this than you seem to be aware of. Biden has no stick to force anyone to stay home when their sick.
The CDC is a toothless organization. Any attempt to mandate a policy of "employers can not allow employees to come to work if sick" is going to be kicked over by SCOTUS. All of the effective public health measures during the pandemic were ordered by governors, may of whom faced hostile state courts.
Let me put this another way: the reason why we can't have an effective Federal policy on viral infections is the same reason we can't have an effective Federal policy on gun control.
This is true up to a point. CDC guidance informs what a lot of large public institutions implement, like my university or a local hospital. They say "we're following CDC guidance" if you ask them why they aren't requiring masks, eg. If the CDC was stronger on it, public institutions would be too.
Also if you make a law saying it’s illegal to do X if you’re positive for Y disease, a bunch of people stop testing for Y so they don’t get in trouble if they do X
If I recall correctly, in Oregon the governor and state health authorities mandated what should have been relatively effective measures re: COVID and did not face hostile state courts. But they lacked the political will and competence to enforce them and then got tired of the whole thing.
It's good though that there are all these proven effective treatments should you get long covid, and fortunate that nobody dies of the disease anymore /s
The paid sick leave is only going to do so much until you convince employers that they need to have enough people on staff to be able to handle the workload when multiple people are using the sick leave, even if that makes the employer look less efficient.
Having plenty of sick employees means they work less efficiently, make more mistakes and spread their diseases to everyone else. Paid sick leave is a good thing (coming from a German who stayed home a week in January to avoid infecting her co-workers).
Yeah, I am very much in favor of people having paid sick leave. In the US at least, getting people to use it is going to require a real culture change from the "unless you're dying you better show up" attitude that is very pervasive. And that's going to require a culture change to value flexibility.
I agree, but I also see a lot of people who could take sick days AND STILL GO TO WORK.
We have a social behavior challenge here & it's really hard to fix because it's been politicized to the hilt.
Covid brain damage freaks me out. I was thinking yesterday that maybe it is Covid damage happening now to new generations that makes all The zombie stories look prophetic - sort of like the 80’s SF and climate change.
You would also think after four years they would stop besting the fever drum.
I had likely alpha strain covid late Feb to mid March 2020.
Varying symptoms for 22 days. ONE day of noticeable fever in those 22.
Fever can indicate illness, but lack of fever doesn’t imply healthy & non-infectious.
I had the same runtime of severe symptoms a week or two after yours started and am still recovering from Long Covid. The five day quarantine was BS - this one is going to kill a lot of people.
In Germany, all Covid measures (including isolation etc. - simply all of them) were lifted at the beginning of last year. Likewise, neither testing nor counting takes place. Result: big waves that the media hardly report on because there are no official figures anymore. Yay.
It isn’t even permission, it is requirement. Companies use CDC guidelines to set policy. Employers - including hospitals, schools, nursing homes, etc are going to expect folks to return to work while positive for illness. Just like before. Because money is more important than people.
We deserve full ownership over our time and health.
I've worked in the USA and EU.
In USA I was once forced to go into a restaurant shift with a full on stomach flu.
In EU i can call out for 2 days no questions asked, longer needs a Dr note which a lot of offices will give over the phone.
The brainworms are real though Everytime I need to take advantage of this I feel like I'm going to lose my job even though I know I'm legally protected.
Plus isn't COVID far more contagious than both of those? I thought its R0 was 2-3 times more, which would translate into exponentially greater spread with the same exposure patterns.
