Make up your mind, CDC
Federal agency withdraws guidance that says COVID-19 spreads mainly through the air -- and more than 6 feet. Here's what you need to know.
This is longer than usual because the issue of airborne transmission is so incredibly important to stopping COVID-19. In addition to covering the news of the day, I have included some reliable sources and credible guidelines, since apparently we can no longer rely on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) I write that with profound sadness.
The whiplash created by the swift withdrawal of a new CDC document that said the biggest risk for COVID-19 spreading is through the air — and not just within six feet probably will need its own new diagnostic code. None of us who have followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for many years can remember a scientific document posted “in error,” as the agency said occurred this time. This comes just a days after well-documented news reports showed how non-expert political staff forced CDC to publish dubious testing guidance over the summer.
The now-withdrawn CDC document says what many experts have been saying since the spring:
"There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes). In general, indoor environments without good ventilation increase this risk."
For Americans, the confusion over COVID-19 risks only gets worse when things like this occur. The scientific community was increasingly confident that COVID-19 spread through the air as far back as April. By July, not only was this a consensus opinion, but experts were providing sound guidance on what it means: wash your hands, wear a face covering and, if you must gather with others, outdoors is much safer than indoors. For indoor spaces, ventilation improvements have been recommended.
Great source of details about airborne COVID-19 is at this link: https://tinyurl.com/FAQ-aerosols. It has been compiled by a group of scientists, including recognized experts on airborne diseases. And this image from a recent scientific paper shows how face coverings help:
Meantime, the CDC released new social media tools that emphasize “more than six feet” separation and wearing a face-covering anytime you are in public.
Other headlines:
The seven-day average rate of new cases in the United States is going up, not down. Eleven states each reported 1,000 or more new cases Sunday, and the epidemic is expanding in 30 states, according to former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
Early COVID-19 vaccines require very cold storage, which greatly complicates both distribution and administration.
More than 150 nations have joined an agreement on global vaccine allocation. The United States is not one of them.
The National Medical Association formed a committee to independently review COVID-19 vaccine safety. The physician group has mostly African-American physician members.
A Kentucky doctor who tried persuading people that wearing masks was not about politics but instead was about science has died of COVID-19. More than 1,000 other healthcare workers in the USA have also died from the disease, according to The Guardian and Kaiser Health News, who have partnered to track these cases.
The blame game: Congressional Republicans have prepared a report that says the COVID-19 pandemic could have been prevented if China had not concealed what it knew in December and January and if the World Health Organization had not accepted China’s information so readily, according to the New York Post. While these points are accurate, partisans want to overlook that U.S. experts knew there was an emerging infectious disease in December and predicted the pandemic and had the information needed to contain its spread in January. Moreover, none of the steps taken by the U.S. leadership before mid-March came close to what pandemic experts advised.
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