Data from coronavirus wastewater, CDC guidelines can give mixed signals on whether to mask
Data from coronavirus wastewater, CDC guidelines can give mixed signals on whether to mask
The CDC has said it no longer recommends universal case investigation and contact tracing for Covid 19 according to the new york times. Instead, the CDC encourages health departments to focus these protocols on high risk settings, some of which include long term care facilities, jails and prisons and shelters. A senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Crystal Watson said this is a big change. Two years ago, the CDC called upon 100,000 contact traces to contain the coronavirus. Now, with the national outlook continuing to improve rapidly with new cases, hospitalizations and deaths falling. The plan is to move in the direction of treating Covid 19 as another manageable virus. Kristen Nordland, a spokeswoman for the CDC, said the updated guidance is in response to changes in the nature of the pandemic and the increasing availability of new tools to prevent transmission and mitigate illness.
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Data from coronavirus wastewater, CDC guidelines can give mixed signals on whether to mask
The federal government has taken clear steps toward a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent weeks: The Biden administration released the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, and new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped masking recommendations for most of the country.As many Americans try to move on from the height of the pandemic and as testing wanes, detecting coronavirus levels in wastewater offers an alternative to monitoring community spread.The CDC captures wastewater data for about 650 sewersheds, representing about a quarter of the U.S. population. For most of those sites, the amount of virus detected has dropped over the past two weeks.But for some, the amount of virus has spiked — up at least 1,000% compared with 15 days earlier.For local leaders, an early warning sign such as this might prompt a renewed emphasis on prevention measures. But with the vast majority of the country now living in areas considered to have a low or medium "community level" of COVID-19, this surveillance data may conflict with what CDC guidelines suggest.In June, wastewater surveillance in North Carolina detected elevated levels of the coronavirus in a local community. A news release went out, reminding residents to "stay vigilant" and encouraging continued mask use.The surveillance most likely alerted officials about rising levels of infection days faster than more traditional measures like testing numbers."Especially with a virus as quick and contagious as this one is, those few days really matter," said Kody Kinsley, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. "So our first reaction has been to use it as an early warning system, through public communication."But under the new CDC guidelines, most of the places that have had a recent spike in the amount of virus detected in the wastewater are in counties where indoor masking is no longer recommended.Of 28 sites that had a 1,000% increase over the past 15 days, only four are in counties considered to have a "high" community level, where indoor masking is still universally recommended as of Wednesday. More than half are in counties with a "low" community level, where there is no recommendation for masking at all.Though previously driven solely by local case rates, the CDC's new masking guidelines now prominently factor in hospital admissions and hospital capacity. Some critics have argued that they stray too far from measures aimed at COVID-19 prevention, such as minimizing coronavirus transmission.The CDC continues to monitor community spread, and at a briefing last week, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky touted strategies that "can better anticipate a rise in cases" and alert people in real time, including wastewater surveillance."For SARS-CoV-2, wastewater can detect an increase in cases four to six days before we might see these cases show up through a rise in positive tests," she said.The CDC says wastewater data is meant to complement other surveillance tools. When wastewater levels are low, a small uptick can seem like a dramatic increase, said Brian Katzowitz, a health communication specialist with the CDC. But it best informs public health decision-making when used in harmony with other metrics.Although wastewater data is not formally part of the CDC's new guidelines, the public health response to rising levels would be very similar to those taken if trends head in the wrong direction with other metrics, said Amy Kirby, program lead for the National Wastewater Surveillance System — including encouraged masking, social distancing and vaccination.It offe