U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new COVID-19 rules on August 11, 2022. WebMD sees this as a “new, potentially less-scary phase” after 2 years, 90 million cases, and over a million deaths. Do the new CDC COVID rules mark a pandemic shift from what seemed like a never-ending crisis? We sure hope this is true!
Do New CDC COVID Rules Mark a Gentler Phase?
This certainly seems to be the case, with control shifting from government to individuals as WebMD puts it. It terms of that, the authorities will no longer tell us when and where to social distance or wear face masks, if at all. This may not herald the end of COVID-19. However, it does confirm they no longer regard the virus as a frightening killer.
Health Care and School Administrators Applaud
From what we hear most key people support the move to lower the bar, in-so-far as control is concerned. The CDC says it is doing so because of a lesser risk of “medically significant infections”. Therefore, they have reversed their earlier position on social distancing, quarantining, and testing children for COVID-19 at schools.
However, it seems likely many schools could voluntarily continue with the old rules. Rules that worked so well in the past, given that control has shifted to them now. “The CDC’s new guidance doesn’t change what we were going to do anyway,” one education spokesperson commented.
“This was to encourage people to stay current on their vaccinations, and stay home if they feel sick,” he said. But perhaps the biggest benefit for schools is the new CDC COVID rules free them to focus on their main role of being educators, instead of “enforcers of medical guidelines.”
But This Does Not Mean the Threat Has Gone
Perhaps this is a good time to reflect that U.S. COVID transmission rates are higher than 20% in much of the country. Some of us are more vulnerable than others to contracting serious infections, and U.S. vaccination rates are at best lackluster. Therefore we should not drop our guard completely, despite what others may believe.
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