With the Covid-19 pandemic still persisting over two years after it began, the most recent CDC announcement that relaxed mandated quarantine may suggest that cases are decreasing, and we can see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Unfortunately, that is not the case, but rather that our society has naturally adapted to the existence of this pandemic, with the CDC sharing that “This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”
The guidance in question concerns those who have a known Covid exposure, in which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared how they recommend “that instead of quarantining if you were exposed to COVID-19, you wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on day 5.” Additionally, the signature “6 feet apart” that everyone and their mothers knew as a rule of thumb in 2020 is now “no longer recommended,” with the importance being placed on wearing masks if you are worried about contracting the virus. As of yesterday, over 100,000 cases of Omicron in the US have been recorded, but the symptoms are generally not too bad for those who are vaccinated.
Due to the mild effects of omicron, if you are not immunocompromised or don’t plan on spending time with someone who is simultaneously at risk for infection and unvaccinated, the increasing case numbers don’t seem to be any cause for concern. In fact, CDC Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch leader Greta Massetti expressed the vast different between the severity of Covid at the beginning of the pandemic, before the vaccine was even created, compared to now, where “The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years.” Massetti said that “We know that Covid-19 is here to stay,” so therefore we must do our best to help those with serious cases, but also continue to live our day-to-day lives that have been negatively affected for so long.
