US Passes New Guidelines On COVID-19 Testing; Baffles Governors, Health Experts As Cases Surge

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention ran a counter stance on the COVID-19 testing, through a recent update which suggested that asymptomatic people, who’ve come in close contact with infected individuals, needn’t get themselves tested. The new guidance comes with a caveat though: The exclusion only applies to those with a good health history.

The guideline sparked fury, and created a stir across the U.S., as health experts are appalled by the untimely announcement of the statement at a time when the total number of cases have passed 24 million globally, with the United States accounting for more than 5.8 million cases.

Public health officials labeled the new-found theory as “bizarre” as the CDC has categorically mentioned how 40% of the cases tested positive usually exhibit no classic COVID-19 symptoms. “The recommendation not to test asymptomatic people who likely have been exposed is not in accord with the science,” said John Auerbach, president of Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit organization that bolsters the U.S. preparedness against disease.

While the Michigan Health Department has requested a clarification on the new guidelines, several governors ascertained that the revised guidelines seemed like another sign of “a dysfunctional federal response to the pandemic”. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Washington Governor Jay Inslee slammed the new recommendations.

“Why would you reverse yourself on the quarantine order? Because they don’t want the publicity that there is a COVID[-19] problem. Because the president’s politics are, ‘COVID isn’t a problem We’re past COVID. It’s all about the economy,’” said Cuomo to reporters during a conference call. “What possible rationale is there to say, ’You’re in close contact with a COVID-positive person. And you don’t need a test?’” he added.

The principal investigator of California’s contact tracing program, Dr. George Rutherford of the University of California, San Francisco, supported Cuomo’s stance, vouching for mandatory testing among asymptomatic individuals too.

In their defense, the CDC officials redirected all the questions pertaining to the recent announcement to the agency’s parent organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher inferred that the move suggests that the HHS ordered the change. The abrupt change in HHS’s stance intrigued many into wondering if there was more than what met the eye.

But Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health commissioner for the city of Columbus, Ohio, had earlier maintained that testing in her city had to be reduced due to a shortage of reagents used in lab procedures. “I feel so strongly that we should test asymptomatic people when the capacity allows you to,” she said. “And when we were testing asymptomatic people here in Columbus, we were picking up a large number of individuals.”

Critics are also of the opinion that President Donald Trump and his administration are hell-bent on seeing a drop in the COVID-19 count, discouraging more people from getting tested is one way to do it.