It has been exactly one horrible, demoralizing and family divisive year since darkness descended on America. But, on Monday, top public health officials came to a (virtual) briefing on coronavirus strategy at the White House armed with tangible hope.
By announcing new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on how fully vaccinated citizens can begin to get their lives back, they marked a momentous turning point in a pandemic that has killed more than 525,000 Americans.
“It is based on science. It is sensible. You can hug your grandchildren again. If you’ve been waiting to get a haircut, go to the dentist, you can do it,” former CDC Director Tom Frieden said on Citizen Free Press’s “The Situation Room.”
As has happened in the worst public health disaster in 100 years, the good news has major caveats. Those in the long lines for the vaccine must not give in. Travel is discouraged, even for those who have been vaccinated, although some prominent medical experts said the CDC is being overly cautious.
And the threat of the pernicious variants of Covid-19 may be about to inflict another wave of death and disease, once again testing the patience of a weary nation.
While new covid cases have dropped dramatically (hovering around 60,000 per day), the elevated plateau guarantees many thousands more deaths, especially as more states challenge science and risk returning to normal by removing mandates and mask use restrictions before the virus is adequately suppressed.
But the announcement of the guidelines on Monday was a surprising moment because the White House’s covid-19 briefings have generally been depressing affairs, unless the delusional and politically selfish optimism of former President Donald Trump is counted before he quit. go out on camera.
New President Joe Biden will deliver his first primetime address Thursday to mark the one-year milestone in the country’s fight against coronavirus.
As well as giving the country a moral boost and highlighting the light on the horizon, it hopes to showcase its $1.9 trillion covid-19 aid package, which is expected to finally be approved by Congress the day before.
What can vaccinated people do?
Under the new protocols, vaccinated people can visit other vaccinated people indoors without masks or physical distancing. They can also see unvaccinated people from a single household without any precautions if those who have not yet received the injection are at low risk for serious disease.
And if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19 but have no symptoms, they can skip testing and quarantine.
These guidelines will allow for a real return, if they qualify, of the freedoms previously taken for granted for millions of people. They are given two weeks after a second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and 14 days after the Johnson & Johnson single-dose injection.
Already 60 million Americans know that moment of euphoria that comes with the first dose. And more than 30 million are fully protected, a figure that just surpassed the total number of COVID-19 cases in the US.
The White House has been under increasing pressure to offer some guidance to Americans on how their lives can change when vaccinated.
Monday’s announcement could have a major public health impact in and of itself. For most Americans who are still waiting, the glimpse of post-vaccination release could offer a new incentive to stick with social distancing and mask use for a few more months.
Talking about restoring freedoms could also encourage vaccine skeptics to step forward to help create the herd immunity in the population needed to stop the spread of Covid-19.
A tragic event
The proven promise of vaccines and the accelerating rate at which they are reaching American arms, at a rate of about 2 million or more a day, offers something like the prospect of a normal summer.
But it also brings a more poignant understanding.
People who get sick and die in the coming weeks will have been within reach of a vaccine that could have saved their lives.
“There is so much critical at stake in the next two months,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday. “How quickly we will vaccinate against whether we will have another increase really depends on what happens in March and April.”
That equation between vaccination and viral rise is what so horrifies public health experts that more and more states are moving to lift mask-wearing mandates and opening businesses.
After Texas and Mississippi announced that move last week, another Republican stronghold, Wyoming, announced that it would lift its masks mandate and open bars, gyms and restaurants.
There is also growing concern about the impact of spring break in Florida, where the most contagious variant of COVID-19 first found in the UK is multiplying at a rapid rate and could seed new outbreaks across the world. country when the young partiers return home.
America’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Monday that current infection rates were much higher than the levels at which it was prudent to begin lifting restrictions.
The good news is that it was going down. The worrying news is that it is starting to stabilize a bit, ”Fauci told a National League of Cities conference. “History with this virus has told us that when you start to stabilize at a level as high as this, which is around 60,000 to 70,000 cases per day, you are by no means out of the woods.”
No freedom to move around the country
Despite the continuing danger of a new pandemic wave, the travel guide offered by the CDC puzzled some seasoned medical experts.
Former Baltimore health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen told Citizen Free Press’s Brooke Baldwin that the advice defied common sense as it was inconsistent with other recommendations about who Americans could see vaccinated.
“In fact, I would go further and say that people who are fully vaccinated should be able to travel, they should be encouraged to travel, and that’s one of those incentives that we can offer as a way to restore freedoms, that now you can travel and go. to visit loved ones and go to museums and cultural institutions once you are fully vaccinated,” Wen said.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a renowned cardiac surgeon and professor at George Washington University, agreed that the travel guide was too restrictive.
“I think they really haven’t gone far enough,” Reiner told Citizen Free Press’s Erin Burnett, while suggesting that the CDC was concerned about sending a message that might convince unvaccinated Americans to start flying.
But earlier, Walensky had explained the rationale for the CDC’s caution.
“Every time there is an increase in travel, we have an increase in cases in this country,” he said.