The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly updated its guidelines to say that those who have been exposed to the coronavirus but are without symptoms “do not necessarily need a test.”
What the CDC said before: “Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.”
What the CDC says now: “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, 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.”
The guidelines also say that someone who doesn’t have COVID-19 symptoms and who hasn’t been in contact with the virus doesn’t need to be tested, either, according to CNN.
“Not everyone needs to be tested. If you do get tested, you should self-quarantine/isolate at home pending test results and follow the advice of your health care provider or a public health professional.” — the CDC’s website
Experts worry about these guidelines:
Experts are worried about the change since “a large share of transmissions occur before individuals develop symptoms. Some individuals infected with the coronavirus never exhibit symptoms, but can still transmit the virus to others, too,” according to The Washington Post.
Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, tweeted that she did not understand the new guidelines.
“This makes no sense. People without symptoms account for up to 50% of transmission. We need MORE testing, not less.”
Carl Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the University of Washington, called the change “troubling.”
- “Without explanation, the @CDCGov made remarkable and troubling changes to their guidelines on coronavirus testing this week,” he tweeted.
- “The most recent guidelines seem to give up any pretense of using contact tracing to control COVID. The whole point of contact tracing is to find asymptomatic contacts of known cases and isolate them. If you aren’t even going to test them? Certainly no point in tracing.”
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, also didn’t approve of these changes.
“Now what the hell kind of CDC recommendation is this? We need to be doing MORE testing, not less.”