COVID-19 is becoming more like the flu and, as such, no longer requires its own virus-specific health rules, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday alongside the release of a unified “respiratory virus guide.”

In a lengthy background document, the agency laid out its rationale for consolidating COVID-19 guidance into general guidance for respiratory viruses—including influenza, RSV, adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, and others, though specifically not measles. The agency also noted the guidance does not apply to health care settings and outbreak scenarios.

“COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV,” the agency wrote.

The most notable change in the new guidance is the previously reported decision to no longer recommend a minimum five-day isolation period for those infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Instead, the new isolation guidance is based on symptoms, which matches long-standing isolation guidance for other respiratory viruses, including influenza.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Remember when you would get shouted down for saying this will eventually be treated like the flu? I do.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      No, but I do remember almost everyone agreeing with that. The part they disagreed with was how long “eventually” would be.

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I remember conservatives complaining about their oppression happening, but I’ve never heard of it happening in real life.

    • pikmeir@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s not what people got shouted at for. It was for conflating it with a common cold.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No, I remember when people who said it was the flu got told that they were idiots because influenza is, a) a totally different family of viruses than coronaviruses and b) really fucking deadly.

      So yeah, if you say that, you’re as much of an idiot as someone who says that people shouldn’t be worried about all those wolf attacks when there are leopards on the loose.

      • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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        1 year ago

        Fucking hell. I can’t believe that it is 2024 and I still have to tag people as Covidiots. Edit: From a Star Trek instance no less. Make it make sense. I thought Trekkies were all science nerds.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          There are a lot of Star Trek fans that liked it “before it became all woke”, and “wokeness” is a much more integral feature of Star Trek than science.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      1 year ago

      You got shouted down for saying that covid WAS already like the flu. Stop arguing in bad faith and spread disinformation.