With new daily cases hovering around the 60,000 mark and the threat of spreading variants, navigating the pandemic is admittedly complicated, even for those fully vaccinated. The CDC director made it clear that these guidelines will not be the last word.
“Our understanding of the virus continues to evolve rapidly. The recommendations issued today are just a first step,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky at a press conference at the Covid-19 White House on Monday.
Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to Covid-19 under the Biden government, told CNN that the more people who are fully vaccinated – currently, about 10% of the population did – the more CDC will add to their boards.
“The rate of development of a new guideline is directly related to the speed with which we vaccinate the country. This is the key point. In 10% of vaccinations we have this guideline. In 20-30%, we will have a new guideline,” said Slavitt Correspondent CNN chief physician Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Slavitt said there will be a distinct change in the way the CDC gives advice next time. It will move away from the type of binary message in this first set.
For example, the guidelines currently advise everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated, to avoid midsize and large crowds. Those who are fully vaccinated, however, advise the guidelines, can now exchange the outdoor picnic table for the dining room table and find themselves indoors and without a mask.
The next version of the guidelines, said Slavitt, will describe the activities as being more in a low, medium or high risk category.
Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, an infectious disease specialist at Yale, thinks that, with a moving risk scale, the CDC could be “a little more comprehensive” next time, for example, by addressing more specific locations, such as gyms and restaurants.
But for now, there are still many unanswered questions.
More travel questions
In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said the agency “can update its travel recommendations for fully vaccinated people as more people get vaccinated and learn more about how vaccines work. in the real world. This is something we will be watching closely in the United States. ”
McDonald added that “several new variants of the virus have spread globally and in the US through travel. Because of the increased risk for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, everyone, regardless of vaccination status, must still take all precautions recommended by the CDC before, during, and after the trip. “
Walensky of the CDC explained on Monday that “every time there is an increase in travel, we have an increase in cases in this country. We are really trying to restrict travel in this current time period and we hope that our next set of guidelines will be to have more science about what vaccinated people can do. “
Some public health experts are also reacting.
Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that the latest advice was very conservative and inconsistent with other recommendations about whom vaccinated Americans could consult. She expects more in the next round.
“In fact, I would go further and say that people who are fully vaccinated should be able to travel – they should be encouraged to travel, and this is one of those incentives that we can give as a way to restore freedoms, which you can now travel and visit your loved ones and go to museums and cultural institutions when you’re fully vaccinated, ”said Wen.
It would be useful if the next guidelines offer a range of risks for those who must travel, he said.
For example, if the mother of a 65-year-old or older is vaccinated but has 15 underlying illnesses, said Rutherford, she may want to think twice before getting on a plane. “I mean, the vaccine’s effectiveness is average, and there is a certain failure rate and you may not want to risk it,” said Rutherford.
If, however, the older mother is healthy and has an adult child who is obese and has hypertension – two conditions that make someone more vulnerable to the serious effects of Covid-19 – the mother may want to book her ticket.
“It is a highly individualized circumstance,” said Rutherford.
Adapting to more scenarios
Nor did the guidance address people who were fully vaccinated in schools. President Joe Biden announced last week that he would order states to make vaccinating teachers a priority and many states have.
As more teachers are fully vaccinated, said Rutherford, the guidelines may address, for example, school districts that regularly test people for Covid-19. They may no longer need to select these teachers.
Future guidelines will also want to look at college campuses that do regular screening.
“Is it good to be vaccinated and will they have to decrease the density in the dorms?” Rutherford asks. “I can imagine that colleges are looking at vaccination as a way to start putting people back on track and they are going to want guidance.”
Even with more guidance coming out of the CDC, Ogbuagu reminds people that it’s not just your vaccination status that you need to keep in mind while calculating the activities that can be added to your life.
“Remember, what motivates this is if you are in an area where there is high intensity or transmission, you have to adapt to that,” said Ogbuagu. “These guidelines should have variability in relaxing some of these measures based on the incidence of Covid-19.”
Ogbuagu has empathy for the writers of the CDC guidelines and faith that they will give good advice in the next round, balancing what they know about science with each other.
“There are some messages there that I think the CDC had to consider with its guidelines. Many of us think that the guidelines could have gone further, but I am very understanding, because we are in a very difficult middle place in the pandemic,” said Ogbuagu . “It may be a little premature to make such comprehensive recommendations, but that will change as more people receive these highly effective vaccines.”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Ross Levitt of CNN contributed to this report