Public health challenge as societies try to move past Covid

Excellent point on the ‘This Week in Virology’ podcast by Dr Daniel Griffin speaking about the confusion as regards testing for Covid at home and so on.

He notes that the guidance currently in effect dates back a year or two with regards to how long one should isolate. He observes too that many, perhaps most, people have now all but disregarded this advice, given high levels of vaccination and so on. His view is that perhaps it’s time for another look at the science and update the guidance as there’s a tension between public health and indeed what the public will actually do. Or as he put it:

The challenge of public health balancing the science, a period of transmission that may have changed over time, and what is the current window for transmission in the context of vaccinated and hybrid immunity plus the current variants we really need to know that data and the challenge for the public health folks is if you give the guidance and people are doing it 2 or 3 percent of the time that’s not helpful. I wonder are we going to get the science or are we going to be stuck with the general guidance. It’s time for people to really look at the science again and update the guidance for something that people are willing to follow.