Dr. Lucky Tran Profile picture
Feb 13, 2024 10 tweets 3 min read Read on X
The CDC wants to stop telling people to isolate for five days when they are sick with COVID. This is a reckless, anti-public health policy that contravenes science, increases disease spread, and puts everyone at greater risk. 🧵 The Washington Post: CDC plans to drop five-day covid isolation guidelines  Americans who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to routinely stay home from work and school for five days under new guidance planned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The truth is COVID is still killing and disabling way too many people, and too many are locked out of society and can’t even access medical care safely due to high levels of COVID transmission. We still need strong isolation guidelines and better public health protections. /2
People look to the CDC for science-based guidance. But this policy change goes against the science and will cause more misinformation, misleading people to think that they can’t spread COVID if they “only” have “mild” symptoms. /3
The CDC claims that levels of immunity warrant a shift, but this is misinformation. It’s true that we are in a different phase than 2020, but thousands are still dying from COVID every week, millions have Long COVID, and every reinfection puts people at increased risk. /4 CDC officials acknowledged in internal discussions and in a briefing last week with state health officials how much the covid-19 landscape has changed since the virus emerged four years ago, killing nearly 1.2 million people in the United States and shuttering businesses and schools. The new reality — with most people having developed a level of immunity to the virus because of prior infection or vaccination — warrants a shift to a more practical approach, experts and health officials say.
This is a reckless and fatalistic comment. While it’s true that many people conceal their sickness, the solution isn’t to make doing the wrong thing acceptable. Public health shouldn’t be a race to the bottom. /5 “Public health has to be realistic,” said Michael T. Osterholm, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota. “In making recommendations to the public today, we have to try to get the most out of what people are willing to do. … You can be absolutely right in the science and yet accomplish nothing because no one will listen to you.”
Instead of throwing its hands in the air and rubber-stamping disease spread, the CDC should be keeping its isolation guidance, while doing a lot more to normalize the wearing of N95 masks, which would reduce the harm from those who are going out when sick. /6
This is logic is highly flawed. Governments should push for increasing structural supports like free N95 masks, more paid sick leave, and clean air infrastructure. These policies would do more to help workers, than green-lighting policies that would make workers more sick. /7 California’s state epidemiologist Erica Pan said the societal disruptions that resulted from strict isolation guidelines also helped spur the change. Workers without sick leave and those who can’t work from home if they or their children test positive and are required to isolate bore a disproportionate burden. Strict isolation requirements can act as a disincentive to test when testing should be encouraged so people at risk for serious illness can get treatment, she said.
Using only “clinical symptoms” to determine when to stay home doesn’t make sense as you can spread COVID without symptoms, and studies show many people hide or underplay their symptoms, which leads to disease spread. /8 The CDC plans to recommend that people who test positive for the coronavirus use clinical symptoms to determine when to end isolation. Under the new approach, people would no longer need to stay home if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medication and their symptoms are mild and improving, according to three agency officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.
The main force driving the CDC’s COVID isolation policy change isn’t science, it’s business groups. And it will lead to increased exploitation of workers, and make workers more sick. /9 Officials said they recognized the need to give the public more practical guidelines for covid-19, acknowledging that few people are following isolation guidance that hasn’t been updated since December 2021. Back then, health officials cut the recommended isolation period for people with asymptomatic coronavirus from 10 days to five because they worried essential services would be hobbled as the highly transmissible omicron variant sent infections surging. The decision was hailed by business groups and slammed by some union leaders and health experts.
The last time the CDC weakened its COVID isolation guidance, it did so due to pressure from airline CEOs. The same corporate pressures are causing the CDC to go against science and public health now. /10 NPR: Delta's CEO asked the CDC for a 5-day isolation. Some flight attendants feel at risk

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Dr. Lucky Tran

Dr. Lucky Tran Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @luckytran

Feb 23
Brilliant protest. Yosemite National Park workers hung an upside-down American flag — traditionally a symbol of distress or a national threat — thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan. An upside-down American flag hangs from El Capitan near Yosemite National Park’s Horsetail Fall on Saturday to protest the thousands of federal job cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration.  Tracy Barbutes/Special to the Chronicle
Also, a fired Yosemite National Park service worker rappelled down El Capitan in protest of the illegal cuts. A Yosemite National Park service worker fired as part of the federal government's workforce reductions rappelled down El Capitan in protest Saturday. Tracy Barbutes/Special to the Chronicle
Statement by Yosemite NPS workers: “These losses, while deeply personal and impactful, may also be invisible to visitors and the public — we are shining a spotlight on them by putting a distress flag on El Capitan in view of Firefall. Think of it as your public lands on strike.” “The purpose of this exercise of free speech is to disrupt without violence and draw attention to the fact that public lands in the United States are under attack,” it reads. “The Department of the Interior issued a series of secretarial orders that position drilling and mining interests as the favored uses of America’s public lands and threaten to scrap existing land protections and conservation measures. Firing 1,000s of staff regardless of position or performance across the nation is the first step in destabilizing the protections in place for these great places.”
Read 4 tweets
Feb 8
More details on censorship at the CDC from
@Alexander_Tin. TLDR; Trump officials stopped CDC scientists from publishing data on bird flu in the MMWR. Instead, they forced CDC scientists to publish on the health risks of wildfires to bolster Trump's attacks on CA Gov Newsom. Trump officials exerting unprecedented control over CDC scientific journal By Alexander Tin February 7, 2025 / 6:18 PM EST / CBS News
"As [the] pause has started to lift, Trump officials at HHS, and acting CDC Director Susan Monarez, refused repeated requests by career health officials to publish the completed [bird flu] research, officials say."
"The stalled research includes findings about pet cats owned by dairy workers being infected with bird flu, plus wastewater testing results and antibody testing of cow veterinarians."
Read 7 tweets
Feb 8
The NIH announced it will slash billions of dollars of support to universities and research centers.

This is one of the biggest attacks on science we have ever seen. It could dismantle the biomedical research system, shut down clinical trials, and halt development of treatments.
I can't emphasize enough how disastrous the NIH cuts will be. If implemented as proposed, it could decimate universities and college towns. And it could mean every one of us in the US and around the world will experience shorter and less healthy lives.
This is NOT a drill. The NIH has announced the cuts will take effect Monday.

Do not stay silent. Now is the time to organize your labs, your departments, your campuses, your cities, and push back against this vengeful attempt to destroy science and universities.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 23
The Trump admin has cancelled the panels that approve NIH grants, & is banning scientists from communicating with the public, attending conferences, & hiring.

NIH is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research. This will halt discovery of lifesaving treatments. Devastating
The Trump administration’s NIH freezes do not only affect federal science agencies. NIH grants fund research at universities and many other institutions. Halting NIH grant reviews sabotages important scientific research everywhere.
NIH-funded research does not only benefit people in the US. Researchers with NIH grants often collaborate closely with scientists around the world. And the vaccines, drugs, and treatments developed from NIH-funded research help save the lives of many people all over the globe.
Read 8 tweets
Jan 22
The censorship begins: According to officials, the Trump administration is instructing health agencies including the CDC, FDA, NIH, and HHS to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts.
Asking health agencies to pause all external communications is NOT typical protocol for administration changes. Generally website updates, disease case counts, and other typical day-to-day work continues.
In their first term, the Trump administration instructed agencies overseeing environmental policy, such as the EPA, and the Agriculture and Interior departments to cease communicating with the public. In their second term, they appear to be targeting health agencies too.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 6
BREAKING: The United States has recorded its first fatal case of H5N1 bird flu.

The death was reported by the Louisiana Department of Health. The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds.

ldh.la.gov/news/H5N1-deathLDH reports first U.S. H5N1-related human death Current general public health risk remains low January 06, 2025 The Louisiana Department of Health reports the patient who had been hospitalized with the first human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), or H5N1, in Louisiana and the U.S. has died. The patient was over the age of 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions. The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds.   LDH’s extensive public health investigation has identified no additional H5N1 cases ...
Please note that there still is no evidence of person-to-person transmission, which is why public health departments assess the *current* risk as low to the general public. People who work on poultry or dairy farms are most at risk.
Protective measures you can take include:
- Avoiding sick or dead animals
- Avoiding uncooked food product
- Wearing a well-fitting mask, gloves, and other PPE
- Getting your seasonal flu vaccination (to reduce the risk of coinfection)
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(