The Centers for Disease Control says healthy people who have been exposed to COVID-19 "do not necessarily need a test" as long as they don't have symptoms. That's a reversal from previous advice that clearly recommended testing for all close contacts of infected individuals, regardless of whether they had symptoms.
The new recommendation excludes vulnerable individuals, such as older adults and people with chronic medical conditions. It also says that state and local health officials may still recommend a test.
While some health experts are crying foul, others say they get it – such as Dr.Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (they’re the folks tallying the case numbers)."I agree that reflex testing of anybody with a significant exposure is unnecessary and not the best policy,” he says in a statement. “Those individuals with significant exposures should self-quarantine for 14 days."
- Where do we stand with COVID-19?According to the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins, the United States has confirmed just over five-point-seven million cases across the United States since the beginning – while 178-thousand have succumbed to the illness. In good news?More than two-million people have recovered.
- ..Americans don't resoundingly trust either presidential candidate to provide accurate coronavirus information.That’s according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll, which shows 46% of respondents say they trustJoe Biden– while 31% trust Donald Trump. While neither candidate did very well in the survey, Trump generally fared worse with seven out of ten people saying they don't trust him, period. The poll shows just how politicized the virus has become and the difficulties ahead for whoever is elected in November.
Source:NBC News