- The American Medical Association slammed the Center for Disease Control ad Prevention's new "confusing" COVID-19 isolation guidelines.
- The group said a shortened isolation period could "put our patients at risk," according to a statement.
- The CDC has said the new isolation guidelines were based on what the CDC "thought people would be able to tolerate."
The American Medical Association slammed the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's new COVID-19 isolation guidelines in a new statement, saying the new rules could "put our patients at risk."
The CDC changed it's guidelines last week, shortening the isolation period for people who test positive for COVID-19 to five days for asymptomatic cases.
But, according to the AMA, the new guidelines "are not only confusing, but are risking further spread of the virus."
"Physicians are concerned that these recommendations put our patients at risk and could further overwhelm our health care system," the statement said.
The CDC has said that an estimated 31% of people remain infectious for five days after a positive COVID-19 test — and the AMA fears that could mean people are returning to work and school while they still have the virus.
"With hundreds of thousands of new cases daily and more than a million positive reported cases on January 3, tens of thousands — potentially hundreds of thousands of people — could return to work and school infectious if they follow the CDC's new guidance on ending isolation after five days without a negative test," the AMA said.
The organization went on to say that a negative test should be the requirement for ending isolation after getting a positive COVID-19 test.
"Test availability remains a challenge in many parts of the country, including in hospitals, and we urge the administration to pull all available levers to ramp up production and distribution of tests," the AMA said. "But a dearth of tests at the moment does not justify omitting a testing requirement to exit a now shortened isolation."
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky defended the new guidelines last week, saying that the shortened COVID-19 isolation period was based on what the CDC "thought people would be able to tolerate," Insider previously reported.
She added that the previous 10-day isolation guidelines were "conservative," and that the change was made because many people who test positive as the Omicron variant surges are either asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms.
"People would feel well enough to be at work — they would not necessarily tolerate being home — and if they may not comply with being home, this is the moment that we needed to make that decision and those changes," she said.