Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top disease expert, acknowledged on Thursday that the new, shortened isolation guidelines for Covid-19 cases were put in place in order to get people to return to their jobs faster.
Fauci directly affirmed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new isolation requirements were designed to “get people back to jobs.”
The CDC announced on Monday that individuals with asymptomatic cases of Covid only had to isolate themselves for five days– half the previous time of 10– and then could return to interactions with others, so long as they wore a mask.
Fauci told CNN‘s Jim Acosta that the change was made in response to the huge, record setting number of cases:
“With the sheer volume of new cases that we are having and that we expect to continue with Omicron, one of the things we want to be careful of is that we don’t have so many people out,” Fauci said. “If you are asymptomatic, and you are infected, we want to get people back to jobs.”
“I think that was a very prudent and good choice on the part of the CDC, which we spent a considerable amount of time discussing, namely, getting people back in half the time that they would have been out so that they can get back to the workplace doing things that are important to keep society running smoothly.”
CDC updates isolation guidelines as cases hit new highs
The updated recommendation comes as the Omicron variant surges across the country, setting records for new infections per day.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said that the new guidelines “balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses. These updates ensure people can safely continue their daily lives.”
The seven-day national average for new daily cases shot past 214,000 on Sunday– an 83% increase in two weeks.
President Joe Biden held a conference call with the country’s governors on Monday where he plainly stated that:
“There is no federal solution,” adding that “This gets solved at the state level.”
“Ultimately it gets down to where the rubber meets the road, and that’s where the patient is in need of help or preventing the need for help.”
Omicron could replace Delta
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to grant protection against the Delta strain and may replace it, according to a new study out of South Africa, where the variant was first reported.
The immunity created in the bodies of those who contract the Omicron strain of the virus confers more than four times the protection against the Delta variant than having no protection whatsoever.
The team who undertook the study stated that Omicron could displace Delta because of this ability.
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