Dr. Anthony Fauci raised alarms on Wednesday about a new change to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s new COVID-19 testing guidelines, which seem to discount the risk of asymptomatic transmission of the disease.
The guidelines were changed on Monday and have increasingly drawn concern from the medical community. They now state: “You do not necessarily need a test” even if “you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms.”
But critics argue that asymptomatic transmission of the virus is one of the primary vectors through which it spreads. Discouraging tests for people who have been exposed to the virus but don’t have symptoms could make it much more difficult to keep the spread of the disease under control. When people don’t have symptoms and they’re unaware they’re infected, they may be more likely to spread the disease because they go out in public and interact with other people. Arguably, people who are sick need the tests less, because their symptoms are reason enough to avoid other people. Continue reading.