Feeling more and more invisible as an immunocompromised person. I know that most people in this country are unwilling to endure the “terrible sacrifice” of wearing masks to keep us alive. But it gets pretty depressing when public health gives up on us, too.
300 people dying per day is about the equivalent of three 737 Max aircrafts crashing every two days. As a society, we would never tolerate that. And that doesn't consider Long Covid. The large majority are preventable by vaccination and simple mitigation measures. Except that the politics of division are preempting public health. How many deaths will a politician accept in order to not mask, not isolate, and/or get elected? This is incomprehensible to me. Despicable.
The Centers for Disease CONTROL should stay true to the mission embedded in their name. Bending the knee to politics, and whatever group fictional narrative we’ve arrived at that keeps killing 2,000 Americans a week and giving many more long Covid, is an abdication of duty and moral courage.
At the very least, present honest estimates of the personal, economic, and public health costs of presenteeism when we are sick versus reasonable absenteeism to heal and protect.
The couch, a cozy bathrobe, and Netflix should compassionately await.
I stopped listening to the CDC when they stopped talking about precautions and mitigations. And when 200 members of the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service got Covid at a CDC conference. The messaging has been abysmal and will remain that way because they don't want Covid to be an issue anymore. Most people have stopped doing anything to mitigate spread. At this point people won't do it if it's the least bit inconvenient to them 'getting back to normal'. No one seems to care that they don't have a right to spread a potentially deadly disease to others. People are still complaining about lockdows that lasted a few months, 4 years ago. When we keep seeing data that shows that 70% of household spread started with a child and then we don't do anything to protect kids in school, we have failed. And we keep failing because of bad public messaging. I never thought I'd view the CDC as illegitimate and useless, but here we are. We have failed at public health and safety. We are failing the younger generations by ensuring they will be generations of brain damaged and permanently disabled people. I'm so tired of being a hostage in my own home. As a caregiver, I didn't have much of a life before Covid, but I have no life now and haven't for years. I no longer see a future where I will ever be comfortable in public spaces again. And PTSD makes masking for more than an hour and a half impossible as it triggers panic attacks, still, after 4 years. What is the point of being alive if you can't live your life. There's no joy in mine anymore. Most of us are not okay and no one cares anymore, not that they ever did. I guess that's the sad truth of the Covid pandemic, very few people actually care about others nor are they willing to do anything they don't want to do to protect others.
Yes, public health involves a complex array of factors to consider, not just the science of transmission. I strongly believe that public health institutions (CDC in particular) need to provide recommendations that take all these into consideration and do the best job possible at keeping the public healthy. But I also strongly believe that public health institutions (CDC in particular) need to transparently and directly communicate the science, so that individuals who want to be as safe as possible, have that option. And so everyone has access to the information that could allow them to understand that people taking greater care are not being irrational, but are actually making decisions based on science. CDC and other public health agencies have stopped making that information easily accessible. People who used to mask and fight for masking, now look at other people like they are crazy for masking. Similarly people who took all kinds of COVID precautions before, treat people like they are crazy for continuing to take COVID precautions. I had a dangerous and life threatening complication from COVID. At this point, I have to explain to people I barely know (sometimes complete strangers) that that's why I take the precautions I take. Otherwise, they would literally write me off as completely out of touch with reality. Even with that explanation, it's clear that most people think I should get over it, be glad I'm alive and take my chances with getting COVID again.
Optimism at this point is beyond delusional. Basing anything on what Oregon (or the U.K.) has shown is equally ludicrous. When folks adopt a policy of ignoring reality, doubling and tripling down on that policy doesn't make an impact on what they were ignoring in the first place, FFS. Your analogy about seatbelts in this particular context is missing a key point: it became law that seatbelts be worn and there are consequences to breaking that law.
My 10-yo tested positive for COVID last night for the first time (that we know). Currently doing absolutely everything I can to prevent further spread in our household of 6 including high risk members. We sure as heck aren't playing pretend. JFC.
Every erosion of care from the CDC pushes people who are avoiding infection further into isolation.
There's been zero improvement in air cleaning in schools and workplaces. We no longer have access to 8 tests per month per person. There's been an anti-campaign straight from CDC and state PH that de-emphasized, de-normalized mask use. And somehow, healthcare facilities have weaker airborne precautions that they had in 2019. You won't find good-faith reasoning for any of the shrinking caution coming from the CDC. It looks very much like the goal is to promote infection. Sending sick people back to work/school instead of investing in the long term goal of a healthy populace.
PH guidance teaches the public what's what. It should start from a place of higher caution, because it's warranted and because it teaches the public the true range of contagiousness. It should be based on testing; there's no evidence to support a symptom-based system.
A small portion of the public will disregard it. We should never base guidance on their behavior. That's...stupid.
Another portion will need workarounds in order to get by, because they can't afford to isolate for a long period. (That needs to change, but in the meantime...) These folks need our help.
CDC guidance becomes employment policy. Let's not give employers justification to further erode sick leave. But let's offer a side menu of assistance for when people must be in shared spaces: emphasize how a good-fitting mask improves this scenario while underlining that time in public is not ideal and should be limited; make masks free, plentiful, and normalized; make tests free, plentiful, and accessible; and since no is taking responsibility to CLEAN the AIR, teach people how to do it. But be clear that this is making-do. It is *not* the guidance.
The CDC needs to revisit all the ways they've undermined their mission of Control and Prevention. We're experiencing high transmission and high weekly death, and the CDC is having discussions about eliminating iso. There's no way to justify their negligence, but that's very on-brand for them at this point.
I wish I was as optimistic as you that the CDC will clarify.
The public has moved on and most are hostile to people who still care: I watched Celine Gounder on TV tell some morning show hosts who said CDC guidance was as useless as mattress tags that Covid is killing over 2000 people/week--they didn't care.
In an ideal world, there would be free tests that work, paid sick time, free anti-virals--but that's not going to happen in the US.
Other countries are worse: the UK won't vaccinate most people--including kids--and now they're allowing Covid shots to be sold for $57 to over 12 year olds--apparently that's their approach to flu shots too.
As an at risk person, my world has shrunk. I'm so tired of being treated like I'm crazy when I mask and how few opportunities there are to safely engage.
If the guidance is to "let it rip"--with no evidence that fever is meaningful re: transmission--and avoid vulnerable people, it is useless.
I'd obviously vote for a North Star--this is what stops transmission--with very clear guidance for masking. But realistically, North Star isn't going to happen.
This was leaked in late January, but in general not given much publicity by either California nor Oregon that they had updated their guidelines online to leave it up to the infected to decide for themselves when they felt well enough (asymptomatic) to resume going out and back to work or school. Rather outrageous that it seems the CDC will go along with the general public having decided that precautions are no longer necessary. Extremely frustrating.
As a high risk older person who, along with my even more high risk husband, has been masking and taking precautions against COVID infection for almost 4 years, my stomach reeled when I read the news about this in the Washington Post the other day.
Honestly, I should have seen it coming; Dr. Michael Osterholm, in his recent “Osterholm Update” podcast said, “We have to get the most out of what people are willing to do.”
I appreciate your review of the push and pull of public health challenges. But let’s be real about WHY the challenges exist in the first place. Those responsible for communicating facts throughout the pandemic (CDC, especially) have spectacularly failed in their mission of disease control and prevention.
With the exception of the herculean efforts of a few notable science communicators (yourself, Osterholm, Dr. Emily Smith, Nerdy Girls, etc.) the communication from government health officials was noisy and convoluted, often backtracking, resulting in a loss of public attention, and ultimately, public trust. I don’t know how that gets reversed; as the damage has been so great.
What I do believe is that capitulating to the scientific ignorance of a public who, by and large, have moved on from any sort of COVID precautions, will not result in greater adherence to whatever new lower guidelines the CDC sets. My guess is that they will be ignored altogether.
Some history informs my pessimism:
Masking dropped after Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the vaccinated couldn’t get COVID and could unmask. That announcement resulted in everyone, vaccinated or not, taking off their masks.
After the CDC reduced the isolation days from 10 to 5 (at the behest of Delta airlines), the CDC said those infected with Covid should mask for the subsequent 5 days until day 10. Most people, even public school nurses I know, seemed unaware of that part of the guidance. It just never happened. And nobody knows that they should mask for 10 days if they’ve had a known COVID exposure.
Even HCW don’t seem to understand the facts around COVID. My grandkids’ different pediatricians have told my kids that rapid tests stay positive as long as PCRs, and that masks don’t really work. Many high risk friends over 60 have not been able to get a Paxlovid prescription because their doctors think they are unnecessary.
I was in the hospital recently for an emergency, and while the hospital had a mandatory mask policy for staff and visitors, most staff were unmasked or wearing them under their noses or as chin straps. Most patients were unmasked. The only N-95s in sight were the ones worn by my husband and me.
I had high hopes for the Biden administration to do what was necessary to reduce Covid infections. After all, he made promises during his campaign “to shut down the virus,”
He even held a memorial at the start of his presidency to honor all those who had died. The deaths have continued, with more dying under this administration than the previous. Are we really okay with the current number of 2000 weekly deaths? As Mike Osterholm says, “These are our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, our neighbors and friends.” And some are our children.
The politicization of the pandemic response has been heartbreaking. Biden’s PR firm told him in February of 2022 that he and others in his party need to move on from COVID: https://punchbowl.news/wp-content/uploads/IMPACT-COVID-positioning-strategy-memo.pdf It’s obvious that the party has taken the hint. COVID prevention is a non-starter. The recent Senate committee hearing on Long Covid is one dim light of hope, but it mostly focused on the after-effects of infection, rather than prevention.
For heaven’s sake, even Trump’s surgeon general Jerome Adams is speaking out against lowering the isolation days for Covid. It’s upside down world time!
I’m disillusioned with public health. And mad as hell.
Dear Katelyn and the CDC, we urge you to provide a clear direction for public health. It is concerning to see public health officials distancing themselves from science, as this only further undermines trust in science and public health. How can the CDC create credibility if it succumbs to the limited understanding of science in a population with low scientific literacy? Our leaders need to convey the standard and indisputable facts and hold their ground, so that society can make necessary adjustments. The pandemic demonstrated that society will adapt, even if political and public health officials are dismissive. Any message that contradicts sound scientific guidance erodes confidence in the CDC. Let's take a cue from Pfizer's Superbowl ad and celebrate science and facts. The world would be a better place with more science and facts.
The CDC has lost all credibility. That happens when you lie to the public repeatedly. Things like "stand 6 feet part" weren't "science"....it was based on nothing. When you rip apart society over a virus and lie over and over, it's a long road back.
Reality has finally set it and exposed all the propaganda. These viruses are not controllable in any way.
I think each individual has to make their own decisions based on the information provided and their personal health status. For me, Long Covid has been a life changer, I will continue to isolate and keep myself as healthy as possible until we know more through research.
As a regular person, I don't think I had much direct awareness of CDC recommendations prior to the pandemic. Sure, I was raised to always wear a seat belt, but the messaging from the CDC was being delivered through local governments, agencies, and other types of messaging (I was pretty young in the 80s, so I don't know for sure).
Today, the CDC recommendations are intended to inform state health departments (which, in turn, establish guidelines for school districts), employers' policies, and physicians' guidance for patients. But when they are recommendations and not laws, there's not much behind the guidance UNLESS these health agencies choose to promote them.
And I think Dr. Jetelina is correct that we need to look at the reality and logistics of 5 days of isolation; even salaried employers in high-paying jobs are unlikely to have more than 6 days of allotted sick time a year. So, if you have two kids and each gets covid, it's infeasible to take 10 days of sick time... not to mention that leaves none for yourself if you also get sick. So then we have parents going to work sick because they don't want to "waste" sick days on themselves, and kids in school with covid, flu, RSV, strep, etc. because the parent simply can't take enough time off to be home with the child, at the risk of losing their own job.
Not to mention that most schools figured out in 2020 how to turn on a dime and shift to remote learning, almost instantly. In 2020-21, and even 2021-22, most schools that were in person had a remote option where students could watch live-streamed classes remotely if they were sick, so that they could still participate in class and wouldn't be behind if they had to miss a few days of school. I can't speak for every district, but where I live in the Northeast, there is no longer any option for remote learning. An older student (middle school or high school) who misses more than one or two days of school at a stretch is (for lack of more eloquent language) screwed. It's very difficult to make up work, and it causes a ton of stress for kids. So they refuse to stay home, because the consequences of missing school and the stress of the makeup work is too much -- and that's why kids are going to school sick.
So, this is less about how the public hears the CDC, in my opinion. It's about whether employers, state governments, and school districts are hearing what the agency is saying, and whether they are going to comply. It has to come from the top, which is the employers and school districts. If they make it feasible for someone to take five days off for covid (or for a child with covid), and if the schools make it reasonable for a child to be out for five days without consequences, maybe over time this will become normal. But until then, it's not going to matter what the CDC advises, because people still need to go to work and school, as the personal consequences of taking that much time off are too great. I am not saying I agree with this; but I think it's the reality for most Americans.
Is it feasible to develop a tablet to drop a toilet to test for Covid 19? Can sewer analysis be adapted for use by an individual or household? If not, why?
Feeling more and more invisible as an immunocompromised person. I know that most people in this country are unwilling to endure the “terrible sacrifice” of wearing masks to keep us alive. But it gets pretty depressing when public health gives up on us, too.
300 people dying per day is about the equivalent of three 737 Max aircrafts crashing every two days. As a society, we would never tolerate that. And that doesn't consider Long Covid. The large majority are preventable by vaccination and simple mitigation measures. Except that the politics of division are preempting public health. How many deaths will a politician accept in order to not mask, not isolate, and/or get elected? This is incomprehensible to me. Despicable.
The Centers for Disease CONTROL should stay true to the mission embedded in their name. Bending the knee to politics, and whatever group fictional narrative we’ve arrived at that keeps killing 2,000 Americans a week and giving many more long Covid, is an abdication of duty and moral courage.
At the very least, present honest estimates of the personal, economic, and public health costs of presenteeism when we are sick versus reasonable absenteeism to heal and protect.
The couch, a cozy bathrobe, and Netflix should compassionately await.
I stopped listening to the CDC when they stopped talking about precautions and mitigations. And when 200 members of the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service got Covid at a CDC conference. The messaging has been abysmal and will remain that way because they don't want Covid to be an issue anymore. Most people have stopped doing anything to mitigate spread. At this point people won't do it if it's the least bit inconvenient to them 'getting back to normal'. No one seems to care that they don't have a right to spread a potentially deadly disease to others. People are still complaining about lockdows that lasted a few months, 4 years ago. When we keep seeing data that shows that 70% of household spread started with a child and then we don't do anything to protect kids in school, we have failed. And we keep failing because of bad public messaging. I never thought I'd view the CDC as illegitimate and useless, but here we are. We have failed at public health and safety. We are failing the younger generations by ensuring they will be generations of brain damaged and permanently disabled people. I'm so tired of being a hostage in my own home. As a caregiver, I didn't have much of a life before Covid, but I have no life now and haven't for years. I no longer see a future where I will ever be comfortable in public spaces again. And PTSD makes masking for more than an hour and a half impossible as it triggers panic attacks, still, after 4 years. What is the point of being alive if you can't live your life. There's no joy in mine anymore. Most of us are not okay and no one cares anymore, not that they ever did. I guess that's the sad truth of the Covid pandemic, very few people actually care about others nor are they willing to do anything they don't want to do to protect others.
Yes, public health involves a complex array of factors to consider, not just the science of transmission. I strongly believe that public health institutions (CDC in particular) need to provide recommendations that take all these into consideration and do the best job possible at keeping the public healthy. But I also strongly believe that public health institutions (CDC in particular) need to transparently and directly communicate the science, so that individuals who want to be as safe as possible, have that option. And so everyone has access to the information that could allow them to understand that people taking greater care are not being irrational, but are actually making decisions based on science. CDC and other public health agencies have stopped making that information easily accessible. People who used to mask and fight for masking, now look at other people like they are crazy for masking. Similarly people who took all kinds of COVID precautions before, treat people like they are crazy for continuing to take COVID precautions. I had a dangerous and life threatening complication from COVID. At this point, I have to explain to people I barely know (sometimes complete strangers) that that's why I take the precautions I take. Otherwise, they would literally write me off as completely out of touch with reality. Even with that explanation, it's clear that most people think I should get over it, be glad I'm alive and take my chances with getting COVID again.
Optimism at this point is beyond delusional. Basing anything on what Oregon (or the U.K.) has shown is equally ludicrous. When folks adopt a policy of ignoring reality, doubling and tripling down on that policy doesn't make an impact on what they were ignoring in the first place, FFS. Your analogy about seatbelts in this particular context is missing a key point: it became law that seatbelts be worn and there are consequences to breaking that law.
My 10-yo tested positive for COVID last night for the first time (that we know). Currently doing absolutely everything I can to prevent further spread in our household of 6 including high risk members. We sure as heck aren't playing pretend. JFC.
Let's talk about isolation.
Every erosion of care from the CDC pushes people who are avoiding infection further into isolation.
There's been zero improvement in air cleaning in schools and workplaces. We no longer have access to 8 tests per month per person. There's been an anti-campaign straight from CDC and state PH that de-emphasized, de-normalized mask use. And somehow, healthcare facilities have weaker airborne precautions that they had in 2019. You won't find good-faith reasoning for any of the shrinking caution coming from the CDC. It looks very much like the goal is to promote infection. Sending sick people back to work/school instead of investing in the long term goal of a healthy populace.
PH guidance teaches the public what's what. It should start from a place of higher caution, because it's warranted and because it teaches the public the true range of contagiousness. It should be based on testing; there's no evidence to support a symptom-based system.
A small portion of the public will disregard it. We should never base guidance on their behavior. That's...stupid.
Another portion will need workarounds in order to get by, because they can't afford to isolate for a long period. (That needs to change, but in the meantime...) These folks need our help.
CDC guidance becomes employment policy. Let's not give employers justification to further erode sick leave. But let's offer a side menu of assistance for when people must be in shared spaces: emphasize how a good-fitting mask improves this scenario while underlining that time in public is not ideal and should be limited; make masks free, plentiful, and normalized; make tests free, plentiful, and accessible; and since no is taking responsibility to CLEAN the AIR, teach people how to do it. But be clear that this is making-do. It is *not* the guidance.
The CDC needs to revisit all the ways they've undermined their mission of Control and Prevention. We're experiencing high transmission and high weekly death, and the CDC is having discussions about eliminating iso. There's no way to justify their negligence, but that's very on-brand for them at this point.
I wish I was as optimistic as you that the CDC will clarify.
The public has moved on and most are hostile to people who still care: I watched Celine Gounder on TV tell some morning show hosts who said CDC guidance was as useless as mattress tags that Covid is killing over 2000 people/week--they didn't care.
In an ideal world, there would be free tests that work, paid sick time, free anti-virals--but that's not going to happen in the US.
Other countries are worse: the UK won't vaccinate most people--including kids--and now they're allowing Covid shots to be sold for $57 to over 12 year olds--apparently that's their approach to flu shots too.
As an at risk person, my world has shrunk. I'm so tired of being treated like I'm crazy when I mask and how few opportunities there are to safely engage.
If the guidance is to "let it rip"--with no evidence that fever is meaningful re: transmission--and avoid vulnerable people, it is useless.
I'd obviously vote for a North Star--this is what stops transmission--with very clear guidance for masking. But realistically, North Star isn't going to happen.
This was leaked in late January, but in general not given much publicity by either California nor Oregon that they had updated their guidelines online to leave it up to the infected to decide for themselves when they felt well enough (asymptomatic) to resume going out and back to work or school. Rather outrageous that it seems the CDC will go along with the general public having decided that precautions are no longer necessary. Extremely frustrating.
As a high risk older person who, along with my even more high risk husband, has been masking and taking precautions against COVID infection for almost 4 years, my stomach reeled when I read the news about this in the Washington Post the other day.
Honestly, I should have seen it coming; Dr. Michael Osterholm, in his recent “Osterholm Update” podcast said, “We have to get the most out of what people are willing to do.”
I appreciate your review of the push and pull of public health challenges. But let’s be real about WHY the challenges exist in the first place. Those responsible for communicating facts throughout the pandemic (CDC, especially) have spectacularly failed in their mission of disease control and prevention.
With the exception of the herculean efforts of a few notable science communicators (yourself, Osterholm, Dr. Emily Smith, Nerdy Girls, etc.) the communication from government health officials was noisy and convoluted, often backtracking, resulting in a loss of public attention, and ultimately, public trust. I don’t know how that gets reversed; as the damage has been so great.
What I do believe is that capitulating to the scientific ignorance of a public who, by and large, have moved on from any sort of COVID precautions, will not result in greater adherence to whatever new lower guidelines the CDC sets. My guess is that they will be ignored altogether.
Some history informs my pessimism:
Masking dropped after Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the vaccinated couldn’t get COVID and could unmask. That announcement resulted in everyone, vaccinated or not, taking off their masks.
After the CDC reduced the isolation days from 10 to 5 (at the behest of Delta airlines), the CDC said those infected with Covid should mask for the subsequent 5 days until day 10. Most people, even public school nurses I know, seemed unaware of that part of the guidance. It just never happened. And nobody knows that they should mask for 10 days if they’ve had a known COVID exposure.
Even HCW don’t seem to understand the facts around COVID. My grandkids’ different pediatricians have told my kids that rapid tests stay positive as long as PCRs, and that masks don’t really work. Many high risk friends over 60 have not been able to get a Paxlovid prescription because their doctors think they are unnecessary.
I was in the hospital recently for an emergency, and while the hospital had a mandatory mask policy for staff and visitors, most staff were unmasked or wearing them under their noses or as chin straps. Most patients were unmasked. The only N-95s in sight were the ones worn by my husband and me.
I had high hopes for the Biden administration to do what was necessary to reduce Covid infections. After all, he made promises during his campaign “to shut down the virus,”
He even held a memorial at the start of his presidency to honor all those who had died. The deaths have continued, with more dying under this administration than the previous. Are we really okay with the current number of 2000 weekly deaths? As Mike Osterholm says, “These are our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, our neighbors and friends.” And some are our children.
The politicization of the pandemic response has been heartbreaking. Biden’s PR firm told him in February of 2022 that he and others in his party need to move on from COVID: https://punchbowl.news/wp-content/uploads/IMPACT-COVID-positioning-strategy-memo.pdf It’s obvious that the party has taken the hint. COVID prevention is a non-starter. The recent Senate committee hearing on Long Covid is one dim light of hope, but it mostly focused on the after-effects of infection, rather than prevention.
For heaven’s sake, even Trump’s surgeon general Jerome Adams is speaking out against lowering the isolation days for Covid. It’s upside down world time!
I’m disillusioned with public health. And mad as hell.
Could you please let us know if the CDC recommends a booster with the new vaccine after 6 months? Thank you.
Dear Katelyn and the CDC, we urge you to provide a clear direction for public health. It is concerning to see public health officials distancing themselves from science, as this only further undermines trust in science and public health. How can the CDC create credibility if it succumbs to the limited understanding of science in a population with low scientific literacy? Our leaders need to convey the standard and indisputable facts and hold their ground, so that society can make necessary adjustments. The pandemic demonstrated that society will adapt, even if political and public health officials are dismissive. Any message that contradicts sound scientific guidance erodes confidence in the CDC. Let's take a cue from Pfizer's Superbowl ad and celebrate science and facts. The world would be a better place with more science and facts.
The CDC has lost all credibility. That happens when you lie to the public repeatedly. Things like "stand 6 feet part" weren't "science"....it was based on nothing. When you rip apart society over a virus and lie over and over, it's a long road back.
Reality has finally set it and exposed all the propaganda. These viruses are not controllable in any way.
I think each individual has to make their own decisions based on the information provided and their personal health status. For me, Long Covid has been a life changer, I will continue to isolate and keep myself as healthy as possible until we know more through research.
As a regular person, I don't think I had much direct awareness of CDC recommendations prior to the pandemic. Sure, I was raised to always wear a seat belt, but the messaging from the CDC was being delivered through local governments, agencies, and other types of messaging (I was pretty young in the 80s, so I don't know for sure).
Today, the CDC recommendations are intended to inform state health departments (which, in turn, establish guidelines for school districts), employers' policies, and physicians' guidance for patients. But when they are recommendations and not laws, there's not much behind the guidance UNLESS these health agencies choose to promote them.
And I think Dr. Jetelina is correct that we need to look at the reality and logistics of 5 days of isolation; even salaried employers in high-paying jobs are unlikely to have more than 6 days of allotted sick time a year. So, if you have two kids and each gets covid, it's infeasible to take 10 days of sick time... not to mention that leaves none for yourself if you also get sick. So then we have parents going to work sick because they don't want to "waste" sick days on themselves, and kids in school with covid, flu, RSV, strep, etc. because the parent simply can't take enough time off to be home with the child, at the risk of losing their own job.
Not to mention that most schools figured out in 2020 how to turn on a dime and shift to remote learning, almost instantly. In 2020-21, and even 2021-22, most schools that were in person had a remote option where students could watch live-streamed classes remotely if they were sick, so that they could still participate in class and wouldn't be behind if they had to miss a few days of school. I can't speak for every district, but where I live in the Northeast, there is no longer any option for remote learning. An older student (middle school or high school) who misses more than one or two days of school at a stretch is (for lack of more eloquent language) screwed. It's very difficult to make up work, and it causes a ton of stress for kids. So they refuse to stay home, because the consequences of missing school and the stress of the makeup work is too much -- and that's why kids are going to school sick.
So, this is less about how the public hears the CDC, in my opinion. It's about whether employers, state governments, and school districts are hearing what the agency is saying, and whether they are going to comply. It has to come from the top, which is the employers and school districts. If they make it feasible for someone to take five days off for covid (or for a child with covid), and if the schools make it reasonable for a child to be out for five days without consequences, maybe over time this will become normal. But until then, it's not going to matter what the CDC advises, because people still need to go to work and school, as the personal consequences of taking that much time off are too great. I am not saying I agree with this; but I think it's the reality for most Americans.
Is it feasible to develop a tablet to drop a toilet to test for Covid 19? Can sewer analysis be adapted for use by an individual or household? If not, why?
Doug