Roughly two and a half years since the beginning of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have removed most distinctions in their recommendation for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.
The CDC “streamlined” its COVID guidelines relaxing many of the more severe restrictions as the students return to the classrooms nationwide.
Among the more notable changes is that people no longer should quarantine after exposure to a COVID-positive person, instead suggesting people “wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on day 5.”
Rules regarding isolation if someone does test positive are still in effect; however, the CDC recommends such measures “regardless of vaccination status.”
Furthermore, the CDC explained it was “Updating its guidance for people who are not up to date on COVID-19 vaccines” to where it would be “consistent with the existing guidance for people who are up to date.”
Guidelines about staying 6 feet away from others have also been dropped. However, the CDC is still working “to align stand-alone guidance documents, such as those for healthcare settings, congregate settings at higher risk of transmission, and travel.”
The CDC estimated that 95% of Americans have some immunity to COVID-19 from vaccinations or natural immunity after being previously infected. This is up from an 80% estimation in September 2021.
Many public school districts are welcoming the change. President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, stated, “After two years of uncertainty and disruption, we need as normal a year as possible.”
The previous quarantine guidelines meant that entire classrooms of students had to stay home for extended periods if the infection spread. Under the revised standards, a positive test will not be as disruptive.
Not everyone is as optimistic about the return to a “normal school year.” Anne Sosin, MPH, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College, worried that the lack of precautions could cause the coronavirus to spread more quickly through schools, resulting in more disruption and infection.
“All of us want a stable school year, but wishful thinking is not the strategy for getting there. … If we want a return to normal in our schools, we have to invest in the conditions for that, not just drop everything haphazardly like we’re seeing,” Sosin claimed.
Since May 2022, the number of cases has remained relatively low and consistent, with around 100,000 new cases reported daily.
Since the start of the pandemic, the reliability of guidelines from the CDC has been called into question, given the vacillating nature of the standards and reporting methods. As recently as March 2022, the CDC revised the total death count from COVID, dropping the number by over 70,000.
Furthermore, an Epoch Times report based on CDC responses to Freedom of Information Act requests alleged that the link between myocarditis and mRNA COVID-19 vaccination was potentially suppressed or ignored despite clear indications.
