A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tami Chappell | Reuters
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Good afternoon! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced two major new Covid recommendations last week.
The primary – and way more controversial – change applies to nearly all of us. Individuals who test positive for Covid-19 not need to steer clear of others for a minimum of five days, according to new guidelines the CDC issued Friday.
The second, less surprising shift targets a narrower population: seniors. The CDC on Thursday beneficial that folks ages 65 and older get an extra updated shot against the virus this spring.
The separate announcements show the tricky balancing act that the CDC faces because the pandemic enters its fifth yr.
On one hand, the agency is trying to chill out and simplify its prior health guidelines to reflect the progress the U.S. has made in reducing hospitalizations and deaths from Covid during the last two years.
Doing so also goals to make the CDC’s guidance easier for Americans to understand and follow, especially at a time when a lot of them are not any longer willing or able to spend per week out of labor or school.
However, the CDC remains to be trying to stress the importance of using vaccines and coverings to combat the virus. Those protective tools are critical for people at higher risk of severe complications from Covid, including older adults and immunocompromised patients.
Now, let’s dig into the main points of the 2 new recommendations.
The CDC’s new isolation guidelines say individuals with Covid may resume day by day activities if:
- They have been fever-free without medication for a minimum of 24 hours.
- Their symptoms are improving overall for a minimum of 24 hours.
That matches the agency’s public health advice for the flu and other respiratory illnesses. Notably, the suggestion doesn’t apply to health-care settings or nursing homes.
The CDC recommends that people who find themselves recovering from Covid or other respiratory viruses take additional precautions for five days. They include wearing well-fitting masks, washing their hands, limiting close contact with others, improving ventilation of their spaces and testing as needed.
The agency noted that U.S. states and countries which have already shortened their Covid isolation times haven’t seen increased hospitalizations or deaths related to Covid. That features California and Oregon.
Previously, the CDC beneficial that folks with Covid stay home for a minimum of five days to reduce the probabilities of spreading the virus to others. The agency’s initial isolation period was 10 days.
Some health experts had urged the agency to shorten that period even before the official announcement last week.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told NBC News last month that he and his colleagues have privately encouraged the CDC to drop the five-day isolation period. He said that is partly because there’s little evidence it’s stopping the spread of the virus.
Other experts were critical of the CDC’s new guidance.
The agency’s new guidance “promotes people shedding virus to infect others,” Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said in a post on X. He added that, based on evidence from rapid antigen tests, most individuals will still be infectious in the event that they exit isolation earlier.
Sylvester Fisher gets a influenza vaccine from pharmacist Patricia Pernal during an event hosted by the Chicago Department of Public Health on the Southwest Senior Center on September 09, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. The vaccines were being offered together with pneumonia vaccines and the recently authorized COVID-19 booster vaccine, which protects against the unique SARS-CoV-2 virus and the more moderen omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5 in the course of the event. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The CDC’s other suggestion appeared to be less controversial. In spite of everything, the agency in April backed a second dose of last yr’s Covid shot for seniors and immunocompromised people.
On Thursday, the CDC said healthy older adults should get an extra dose of the most recent round of Covid vaccines a minimum of 4 months after their most up-to-date shot. People who find themselves immunocompromised are already eligible for one more dose of the updated vaccine.
Those updated vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are designed to goal the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. However the shots are also effective against the JN.1 subvariant, which currently accounts for greater than 90% of new Covid infections within the U.S.
Now, the CDC is gearing up for one more slate of new shots this fall.
Researchers are working on choosing a strain for the upcoming version, and can likely wait until May to pick one to design vaccines around, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday.
And he or she expects that to be the established order moving forward: “Folks should anticipate that after they get their flu shot, they’ll get an updated Covid shot as well,” she said.
Latest in health-care technology
A slight uptick in funding for ladies’s health
Pleased Women’s History Month!
It’s no secret that male founders receive vastly more enterprise capital funding than their female counterparts. The 30-year average for female founders’ total share of investments sits at just 2.4%, according to a 2019 report from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Nonetheless, a recent report from Deloitte found that investments in women’s health might be an emerging vibrant spot – though there remains to be plenty of room for improvement.
Investments across technology, pharma, biotech and medtech related to women’s health grew 5% between 2022 and 2023, the report said. Jennifer Radin, who leads Deloitte’s U.S. health-care advisory practice, said the uptick in investment is “really exciting” because women have been historically underrepresented in each the design and delivery of health care.
Besides, women’s health still makes up just 2% of enterprise funding for the general health-care industry, according to the report. There’s still “plenty of room to grow,” Radin said.
She said women make up 50% of the U.S. population, 60% of the paid workforce and greater than 65% of the unpaid workforce, which incorporates child and family caretaking and household management. Consequently, the perception of girls’s health as a distinct segment market is changing.
“Actually ensuring that ladies have access to prime quality, reasonably priced women-centered care creates a more stable economy, and a more stable society,” Radin told CNBC in an interview. “And so the business case for ladies’s health is definitely really clear and might be quantified.”
You possibly can read the total report here.
A new frontier for enterprise capital
In January, the enterprise firm General Catalyst announced it signed a letter of intent to acquire Summa Health, a nonprofit integrated health system in northeast Ohio that supports greater than 1,000 inpatient beds.
It’s an unprecedented move in enterprise capital, and one which has elicited a mixed response from health-care professionals, investors and Ohio residents.
Dr. Marc Harrison, who’s now CEO of HATCo, speaking on the Healthy Returns conference in New York City on May 21, 2019.
Astrid Stawiarz | CNBC
General Catalyst set the stage for the deal in late 2022 when it brought in Dr. Marc Harrison, who spent the majority of the past 20 years within the upper ranks of medical systems. A yr later, the firm introduced a new company called the Health Assurance Transformation Corporation, or HATCo, for Harrison to lead.
Harrison said HATCo’s goal is not to overhaul Summa by cutting costs. As a substitute, the corporate will work over a “decades-long time horizon” to establish new revenue streams and models of care, particularly through the introduction of new platforms and tech solutions.
CNBC explored the acquisition and what it is going to mean for Summa, in addition to why Harrison is up for the challenge. I’ll have way more to come on this because it evolves!
Be at liberty to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com and Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com