Virus review: US health officials change testing advice, bewildering experts. Here’s the latest.
U.S. health officials have sparked criticism and confusion after posting guidelines on coronavirus testing from the White House task force that run counter to what scientists say is necessary to control the pandemic.
The new guidance says it is not necessary for people who don’t feel sick but have been in close contact with infected people to get tested. It was posted earlier this week on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC previously had advised local health departments to test people who have been within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes. But on Monday a CDC testing overview page was changed to say that testing is no longer recommended for symptom-less people who were in close contact situations.
There was a caveat, however. Testing may be recommended for those with health problems that make them more likely to suffer severe illness from an infection, or if their doctor or local state officials advise they get tested.
CDC officials referred all questions to the agency’s parent organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. That suggests that HHS ordered the change, not CDC, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was undergoing surgery and not part of the discussion during the Aug. 20 task force meeting when updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines were discussed.
“I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is,” he added.
In other developments:
- Many homeless people work low-wage essential jobs on the front lines of the pandemic, putting them at higher risk of catching and possibly transmitting the virus.
- U.S. officials said Wednesday there has been no intelligence to suggest that foreign countries are working to undermine mail-in voting and no signs of any coordinated effort to commit widespread fraud through the vote-by-mail process, despite numerous claims made by President Donald Trump in recent months.
- Winter is ending in the Southern Hemisphere and country after country — South Africa, Australia, Argentina — had a surprise: Their steps against COVID-19 also apparently blocked the flu.
- The Justice Department is seeking data from the governors of four states about “orders which may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.”
- The White House is considering whether it can take action to prevent thousands of job losses in the airline industry a month before the election if it cannot reach a deal with Congress on a broader package of additional pandemic relief.
- The opening two nights of the Republican National Convention saw scant mention of a whirlwind of crises as the planners sought to deliver a glossy TV infomercial. However, as the convention approaches its climax with Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday night, the hazards outside are becoming too great to ignore, shining a spotlight on the president’s management of a host of perils.
- North Carolina State University told students remaining in university housing to go home Wednesday, acknowledging a rising number of coronavirus clusters occurring in both on-campus and off-campus housing.
- France’s prime minister says that reopening schools is “one of the essential conditions” for a restart of the economy, hobbled like elsewhere by the coronavirus pandemic.
- Authorities in Greece are using free on-the-spot tests for ferry passengers and nightlife curfews on popular islands to stem a resurgence of the coronavirus after the country managed to dodge the worst of the pandemic.
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