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.

  • @BonesOfTheMoon
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    257 months ago

    10,000 people have died of COVID in the US in the two months of 2024 alone.

    • @cbarrick
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      97 months ago

      How many people have died of influenza in that time?

        • @cbarrick
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          7
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          7 months ago

          Yikes. So COVID is still twice as deadly as the flu.

          Edit: I guess twice as deadly isn’t exactly correct. It could be equally as deadly as the flu, but twice as transmissible. That actually seems likely. Still, twice as many deaths is really bad either way.

      • @John_McMurray
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        -187 months ago

        None, remember the stats? Completely ceased to exist couple years ago.