Enlarge / Signage outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 14, 2020. (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images)
In a mindboggling and dangerous move, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week quietly reversed its recommendation on COVID-19 testing for those exposed to the virus. Now, the CDC says that exposed but symptomless people do not need to be tested.
The change immediately alarmed and outraged public health and infectious disease experts. It is well established that SARS-CoV-2—the pandemic coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19—can cause completely asymptomatic infections in some and spread from other infected people before they develop symptoms (so-called “pre-symptomatic transmission”). In fact, some modeling studies have suggested that pre-symptomatic transmission may account for nearly half, or even more, of SARS-CoV-2 spread.
That information previously spurred the CDC to recommend testing for anyone that was known to have—or even suspected to have—close contact with an infected person (that is, be within six feet for 15 or more minutes).
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Source: Ars Technica – CDC loses its mind, says people exposed to COVID-19 do not need testing