Handling the coronavirus crisis

[Admin]

In what is being called a “stunning reversal” the CDC has posted updated guidance saying that even in cases of close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus testing is “not necessarily” needed. On Tuesday the CDC quietly posted new guidance. “If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms,” it says, “You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.” ABC News reports the “public health reasons for the change were not immediately clear.” “When asked to explain, the Department of Health and Human Services — not the CDC — responded.” HHS is seen as a more politicized government agency than the CDC. President Donald Trump for months has been trying to have less people tested, falsely insisting that testing causes coronavirus cases... Experts are warning the reversal is dangerous. Yale University Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis says “This change in policy will kill.”

Experts sound alarm after CDC says coronavirus testing ‘not necessarily’ needed in close contact cases – Alternet.org

When I asked the CDC about the changes earlier this week, they referred the question to the Department of Health and Human Services — which struck me as unusual, since it suggested the CDC wasn’t overseeing the guidelines. An HHS official told me that the recommendations were “revised to reflect current evidence and the best public health interventions.” HHS didn’t provide or explain that evidence when pressed further, or explain why someone who’s been exposed to a person with Covid-19 shouldn’t always try to get tested. Experts widely agree that more testing is crucial to stopping the coronavirus pandemic, with some already calling the guidelines change misguided and dangerous.

Now CNN and the New York Times report that the changes came from the higher levels of the Trump administration. “It’s coming from the top down,” an unnamed official told CNN. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Sanjay Gupta at CNN that he was under anesthesia for a surgery when the White House’s coronavirus task force met to discuss the guideline changes. He added, “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.””

Trump asked for less Covid-19 testing. Now the CDC is recommending it. - Vox

• Political intervention to reduce testing numbers and cases to create an alternative reality in which the pandemic is receding so boosting Trump's reelection chances but puts more people at risk, welcome to Trump's US