The CDC reduced the required covid isolation period from 10 days to 5 Yesterday.
Dylan Huberman spoke with a doctor, business owner, & school superintendent about what this means for their respective industries. Dylan?
This will be a big deal across all industries, as workers, teachers and more will be able to get back to work faster.
The announcement comes on the heels of recent findings that the virus is most contagious right before and after a positive test result.
Geisinger doctor Amit Mehta describes it like this…
“So, if you are shedding a lot of virus before we even knew we had the infection, then we get tested, and then the 5 days following we’re shedding the virus, the data is…showing that
the 5 days post the first 5 days, which is day 6-10, the shedding of the virus is minimum.”
He’s on board with the decision, and says it’s of the utmost importance to the American workforce.
“It’s a science-driven, practical…practical approach towards keeping the society functioning. Again, Dylan, let’s look at the facts; if everybody is out of work, how are we going to
have a functioning society, right? Now we already are struggling with staffing issues in healthcare, and it’s not just healthcare, name any business in the country, they’re suffering
with staffing issues.”
Something Capperella Furniture owner Dave Capperella believes is huge for small businesses without a large number of employees.
“Well for small business, it makes a significant impact because when you lose one person or two people out of a staff of 12-15, you make a significant impact. If you think percentages,
you’re affecting 20% of your workforce, a 2-week period versus a 1-week period is just a pretty significant number.”
Schools will feel the impact too, as students won’t miss as much time.
“Well, it’s a tremendously big deal. Before the break, we had almost 200 students on just quarantine alone, not sick students, we only had a handful of sick students in each building
but the quarantines go up exponentially when you’re contact tracing at 6 feet.”
And Doctor Paladina says the added availability of teachers will be key.
“We’ll be able to fill in the staff positions and they won’t be gone as long, 5 days, this will be definitely a step in the right direction for us, and it keeps our people where they
need to be in schools, teaching.”
All three men agreed that this is a step in the right direction.
