well joining us now to talk more is Dr Bayo
curry, Winchell Regional Clinical Director at Carbon Health.
DR B C W is such a pleasure to have
you here on cheddar news this morning. Your reaction
to the new quarantine guidelines here. Well, first
good morning and thank you for having me. I
have a mixed reaction. I think the reduce the
, reduce mint of the actual quarantine time makes sense
. However, we have to be mindful that a
negative test needs to happen as well after the patient
actually exit um, a quarantine or has been positive
. So those are the parts that I'm concerned about
. Yes, I think reducing the amount of quarantine
time makes sense. But we also need to have
a negative test before they're allowed to, you know
, be around the public. Yeah. No,
listen, I'm in the same boat with you.
I think that is a very, I think a
negative test also is incredibly important here. What was
the science here behind why the CDC decided to to
drop the from 10 days to five because we know
that they were getting pressured a lot by lobbying groups
from the airline industry and other business organizations as well
. So is there actual science maybe to back up
the drop or is this just sort of big lobbying
from companies that didn't want to have their employees gone
for 10 days? There is science behind it.
We know that the majority of illness happens or transmission
1 to 2 days before the onset of symptoms and
then 2 to 3 days as you have symptoms.
So there is science behind the reduce mint of the
actual five days. However again, as we mentioned
, we definitely need to have a negative test because
some people can continue to shed the virus after.
So I think those are the things that need to
really be in motion when we talk about really decreasing
transmission and safely having people be around the public.
Um, those who were boosted or those who have
even received the vaccine. It's also sort of interesting
what the CDC has given in terms of guidance for
them because they're saying if if you are boosted and
you even test negative but you've come and you've been
exposed to somebody who has tested positive, you might
not even need to quarantine, Which would have been
news I would have loved 10 days ago if that
was the case. But what's your reaction to that
? Do you do you agree with that assessment?
Well, we do know that if you have received
a booster, you have a higher level of protection
and so you know, making sure that you wear
a mask just in general makes sense. Especially if
you're around people where you do not know their vaccination
status. So having an additional layer of protection if
you've been exposed Makes sense. I think all of
us just really need to lean into really being mindful
of protecting our family, our loved ones and just
really, you know, doing the best that we
can to decrease the transmission. I like to mention
that. Oh, go ahead. Oh no,
I was, I want you to go ahead and
say what you were going to mention. Say that
, go ahead. So, you know, this
virus is with us forever. This is not something
that's going to end. We have to learn to
live with it. And how do we do that
? We lean into science, we do the best
that we can to reduce transmission. So all of
us are just doing the best and we have to
continue to lean into science and just ebb and flow
as this virus continues, you know, to run
rampant unfortunately across the world. No. So true
. And look, we learned more about it every
day. And again, we knew nothing about this
years ago. So again, we're learning more as
we go along. What would you advise your patients
or, or even our viewers who are watching right
now, if they come in contact with somebody That
test positive because again, we're seeing cases really,
really high up over 100% over the course of the
last two weeks, we're now averaging 260,000 new coronavirus
cases a day. So what do you advise people
to do if they come in contact with somebody and
are exposed? Should they still quarantine for those five
days? You know, it depends upon if you
have symptoms. The best thing that you can do
is if you've had an exposure, really notify everyone
that you've been in contact with if you remain asymptomatic
meaning you do not have any symptoms. Think about
getting tested and also wearing a mask as much as
you possibly can because that will help decrease the transmission
if you can get tested. Because that is the
best thing right now that you can do in hopes
of reducing transmission. And I still like to circle
back to vaccinations are key. They can help,
you know, they won't prevent an infection but they
definitely reduce your chance of hospitalization or death. Absolutely
. I mean uh my husband who's still upstairs right
now tested positive because of my booster, I've tested
negative. So it is a perfect reason to go
get that booster shot right there. I'm curious also
, I mean omicron likely is going to become the
dominant strain in this country very, very soon.
Even though the CDC has sort of dropped sort of
their projections of how much they think of the variant
is spreading right now. They're now saying it's about
23% of cases. So Delta clearly the dominant strain
still to this day. But I'm curious your take
on the study coming from South africa that showed that
people who have recovered from an infection with the variant
might be able to fend off later infections from Delta
. Does that essentially say to you that while omicron
yes, is worrisome in terms of the new cases
here. The chances of hospitalization and death and also
potentially warding off delta variant is really, really good
here. So, you know, it's definitely a
mixed review. So yes, that new study that
came out is really important. But it's also important
that we look at that. It's a small sample
. So we have to continue to really look at
how does Omar khan really affect the masses. And
so although that's great news, we have to just
kind of continue to closely monitor how it affects patients
throughout the world, what symptoms are present and how
we can reduce the transmission. And so those are
the major things to just get through this pandemic.
Absolutely. A great advice. Thank you so much
for joining us this morning. Dr Bayo curry.
Winchell is the regional clinical director at Carbon Health.
Thanks so much for getting up earlier with us this 00:06:21.069 --> morning.