The CDC Sees a Great Covid Light

The shorter isolation period balances public health and the economy 

WSJ editorial.

"‘Tis the season for epiphanies, even at the White House. President Biden on Monday said there’s no “federal solution” to the pandemic, and now his Administration is acknowledging that protecting public health requires balancing social and economic considerations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week even revised its isolation guidelines. Praise be. Airlines have cancelled thousands of flights because so many workers were having to self-isolate after testing positive or being exposed to someone who had. As the Omicron variant spreads, businesses are struggling to operate.

Studies show that people are most contagious in the first couple of days before they develop symptoms and a few days afterwards. The incubation period for Omicron appears to be on average three days, shorter than with other variants. Thus the CDC shortened its recommended isolation for most people who test positive or who have been exposed to the virus to five days from 10.

The new guidelines will reduce economic and social disruption and shouldn’t endanger public health, though they won’t eliminate the risk of transmission by people who follow them. Government’s job is to manage public-health risks as best it can while allowing society and the economy to function. It can never eliminate all health risks. 

Even the lockdown loving Anthony Fauci is acknowledging as much. “There is the danger that there will be so many people who are being isolated who are asymptomatic for the full 10 days, that you could have a major negative impact on our ability to keep society running,” he said Tuesday. “So the decision was made of saying let’s get that cut in half.”

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told the Washington Post on Tuesday that the agency revised its guidelines because there “were starting to be limitations in society” due to the extended worker quarantines. She added: “This guidance is only as good as society’s willingness to follow it.”

Translation: CDC’s previous guidelines were becoming unsustainable, like government lockdowns. Americans are ignoring them because they’re too onerous.

This has upset some of the usual public-health sages whose default is always government coercion. One told the Washington Post that the new CDC guidelines do “not seem to be based on science and data and what’s best for the public unless they’re accounting for the complete breakdown of society.” If government did what these experts want, society and the economy would break down.

Unions are also lambasting the Administration. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International griped that the guidelines align with “the number of days pushed by corporate America.” The National Nurses United union claimed the revisions were “motivated by the employers wanting workers back on the clock fast, regardless of whether it’s safe, to maximize their profits.”

As long as we’re talking motives, longer isolation periods mean more overtime for union workers. Some on the right are also accusing the Administration of ignoring science, perhaps as payback for similar Democratic attacks against the Trump Administration.

But two unfair charges don’t add up to the truth. The Administration in this case is marrying science with economic reality. We’ll take its epiphanies as they come."