Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Face Of Confusion And Pushback, CDC May Add Testing To Isolation Guidance
NPR: CDC Could Add A Negative Test To Its New Isolation Guidelines, Fauci Says
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering altering its recommendations for people with COVID-19 after it got pushback on its new guidelines, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. President Biden's chief medical adviser said there was "some concern" that the CDC told people to isolate for five days but did not recommend that they get a negative test before leaving isolation. "That is something that is now under consideration," Fauci said Sunday during an interview on ABC's This Week. On Monday the CDC cut the number of days it recommends COVID-positive people remain in isolation from 10 days to five if they are no longer showing symptoms. People are urged to wear masks for another five days after that to avoid infecting others. (Hernandez, 1/2)
In other news about covid testing —
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Patients Seeking COVID Tests Crowding ERs, Urgent Care Clinics
As demand for COVID-19 testing soars along with numbers of new cases, people with mild symptoms – or none at all – are crowding already busy Las Vegas-area emergency rooms to be tested for the coronavirus. University Medical Center and its Quick Care facilities are seeing significant numbers of these patients, “including many who are seeking testing rather than treatment for symptoms,” hospital CEO Mason Van Houweling said in an email on Monday. “In most cases, these patients can recover at home without medical care.” In statement earlier in the day, Van Houweling urged community members to avoid visits for nonurgent medical needs. With the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, the UMC sites “continue to experience significant increases in patient volumes,” which means longer wait times for those with nonemergency conditions, he said. (Hynes, 1/3)
The CT Mirror: Long Lines For COVID Test Kits In CT; More On Order, Documents Show
Long lines of angry residents were the norm in towns from Ansonia to South Windsor on Monday as local officials distributed what few at-home COVID test kits they had, then turned away people who had waited in their cars for hours. In Ansonia, Mayor David Cassetti warned people in a robocall on Sunday night that the city had a limited supply of kits to give away at Nolan Field on Monday morning. He cautioned people not to come and line up early, but people didn’t heed the request, and the line of cars stretched into neighboring Seymour and almost onto Route 8. (Altimari, 1/3)
Philadelphia Inquirer: LabElite Pop-Up COVID-19 Testing Sites In Philadelphia Falsely Claim FEMA Backing, Should Be Avoided, Officials Say
Philadelphia officials are warning residents to avoid pop-up tests offering COVID-19 testing in Center City that claim to be funded by the federal government. The tents started operating around Center City in late December and city officials confirmed over the weekend that they had falsely claimed they were backed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Lab Elite, a Chicago-based company offering PCR tests, runs testing sites in several cities and said it collected about 4,000 test samples in Philadelphia last month. Owner Nikola Nozinic blamed the issues in Philadelphia on the local test collector hired to collect the samples and said he has shut them down. (McCrystal and Marin, 1/4)
Fox News: Physician Writes That COVID-19 Tests Should Be Available For People Who Need Them Most
Citing COVID-19 testing backlogs in the U.S. amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, a doctor argued in an article published Monday that these tests would be best served if they were used by symptomatic individuals who could benefit most from early intervention. Dr. Benjamin Mazer, a physician who specializes in laboratory medicine and frequent writer in the Atlantic, wrote in the magazine that it may seem "reckless to suggest that people undergo less [italics his] surveillance," but argued that it cannot be ignored that "each unnecessary swab that you consume means one fewer is available for more important purposes—such as diagnosing a symptomatic infection." (DeMarche, 1/4)
Also —
CBS News: The Unlikely Place To Find COVID-19 Tests
Some savvy consumers have discovered that at-home COVID-19 tests are available from an unlikely source: Telemedicine company Ro. At its inception in 2017, under the name Roman, the company billed itself as a men's health care company providing discreet treatments for conditions including erectile disfunction and hair loss. (Cerullo, 1/3)
