Opinion: How should we deal with COVID now?
This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new COVID guidelines ending the five-day isolation recommendation. The agency now advises staying home only if you have symptoms, such as fever. Otherwise, you can return “to normal activities ” if, for at least 24 hours, your symptoms are improving overall and any fever has gone away without the use of fever-reducing medication. The official announcement follows unconfirmed reports in February of this change. As is often the case with COVID-19, the news has started a back-and-forth as to whether the latest government rules are too strict or too loose. Our approach to the virus as endemic remains uneasy as the annual death toll, estimated at below 70,000 in 2023, drops closer to but remains significantly higher than the toll of the flu. Some experts have questioned the policy shift, since there is no new science strongly defining COVID’s contagious period by an active fever. Others have supported the agency’s goal of making COVID-19 guidelines “ easy to understand ” and follow, aligning them with recommendations for other seasonal viruses. Many, including me, want to