When do you need to get a coronavirus test? New CDC guideline has some experts worried
Without a peep, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a change on Monday to their guidelines on coronavirus testing that goes against their previous recommendations initially designed to prevent viral spread.
Now, individuals without symptoms do not need to get tested, according to the agency. People who have been within 6 feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes also “do not necessarily need a test.”
The exceptions include vulnerable individuals, health care providers and state or local public health officials, the CDC added. Attending a public or private gathering of 10 or more people without mask wearing or physical distancing also does not “necessarily” warrant a COVID-19 test, the agency said.
An anonymous federal health official revealed that the CDC was pressured by top leaders in the Trump administration to make the changes, both CNN and The New York Times report. “One official said the directive came from the top down. Another said the guidelines were not written by the C.D.C. but were imposed,” the Times wrote.
Revisions made to existing guidelines appear to be unique to the CDC; the World Health Organization has not updated its recommendations on testing as of Aug. 26. But health experts are concerned this could take the U.S. in the wrong direction in its fight against COVID-19.
“This is potentially dangerous,” Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician in Palo Alto, California, told The New York Times. Excluding people without symptoms means “you’re not looking for a lot of people who are potential spreaders of disease. I feel like this is going to make things worse.”
Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, told CNN’s New Day on Wednesday that “these are exactly the people who should be tested.”
“I’m concerned that these recommendations suggest someone who has had substantial exposure to a person with COVID-19 now doesn’t need to get tested,” Wen said.
President Donald Trump has said that if the U.S. slows down testing, the country will see fewer cases. He tweeted in June that America is “testing far more than any other country.”
Three days earlier at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said, “when you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So, I said to my people, slow the testing down please.”
However, top health experts said shortly after Trump’s remarks that they were never ordered to slow down testing. “It’s the opposite: We’re going to be doing more testing, not less,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease researcher, according to Stat.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took to Twitter to express his thoughts on the changes.
The CDC’s latest guidelines say if people do decide to get tested, they should “self-isolate at home until your test results are known.” They also warn that testing negative does not mean people will not become infected later on.
In July, the CDC revealed their “current best estimates” on asymptomatic coronavirus individuals. The agency said 40% of total infected people don’t show symptoms, while the infectiousness of these individuals relative to symptomatic people stands at 75%.
Researchers in South Korea tested 303 people in isolation following an outbreak to determine their viral load, or how much of the coronavirus was in their bodily fluid. About 30% of them were asymptomatic, while the rest were already ill or soon would be, McClatchy News previously reported.
Testing found roughly the same level of coronavirus in the noses, throats and mouths of asymptomatic patients as those who were noticeably sick — suggesting they may be just as able to spread COVID-19.
“Asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is the Achilles’ heel of COVID-19 pandemic control through the public health strategies we have currently deployed,” the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote in April.
“Ultimately, the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the United States and the globe, the clear evidence of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from asymptomatic persons, and the eventual need to relax current social distancing practices argue for broadened SARS-CoV-2 testing to include asymptomatic persons in prioritized settings.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 9:14 AM with the headline "When do you need to get a coronavirus test? New CDC guideline has some experts worried."
