COVID-19 has been around so long that we don’t even count waves anymore, but the virus and the tools we have to combat it continue to evolve.
And the guidance seems to change enough with each wave that it can make even the most diligent among us feel lost.
Now, more than two years into the pandemic, parts of the US are seeing a spike in cases fueled by the BA.2 subvariant.
Dr. Celine Gounder is a senior researcher and managing editor for public health at Kaiser Health News and a former adviser to the Biden administration. She reviews the latest thoughts on everything from at-home testing to isolation times to contact tracing and why we may be repeating the same mistakes we’ve made with other diseases.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
On whether rapid home tests work for BA.2
Rapid antigen tests work to detect omicron. This pattern that you see is very similar across all variants, and that is that there is usually a day or two lag between when you might test positive on a PCR and when you might test positive on one of these rapid antigen tests. In the home. But they work to detect an infection.
By the expiration dates listed on the rapid home tests
I organize my tests in my drawer actually by expiration date, so I’m using the oldest ones first. So that’s just a little tip there. But the tests are probably good for much longer than what is stated on the label. And that’s really a reflection of the fact that early on, when they were first developed, we weren’t quite sure how long they’d be good for. And they probably last probably, you know, on the order of months longer than they’re labeled to be good at.
About when and how to seek treatment if you test positive
To access the treatment, you can go to covid.gov and find out where in your area you can access Paxlovid and monoclonal antibodies, what facilities currently stock them, and how you can get them. If you already have a primary care doctor, they can help you navigate that as well.
Right now, we have a pretty low supply of treatment. And so we’re really trying to target that supply to the people where it would really have the most benefit. People who are young, healthy, who don’t have significant symptoms probably won’t end up in the hospital anyway. And that’s not the best use of that scarcity that we currently have.
In times of isolation if you test positive
What we are seeing is that people very often test positive for more than five days. You have maybe about half of the people who are negative at five days, but then the other half are positive even at 12-14 days. So I think the way to approach that is to repeat a test. If you’re still positive, really try to stay home. And if you absolutely can’t stay home, that’s a situation where Really you should mask up when around other people so you don’t infect others.
On the current status of contact tracing
Contact tracing efforts have largely been dismantled at this stage. And it’s become even more difficult to trace contacts now, especially if you’re trying to use it as a way to prevent future infection. And that’s because the incubation period for COVID has gotten shorter and shorter with each variant. And so with omicron, the incubation period is only two or three days. And that makes it really hard to try to track down the person you might have infected and take steps to prevent future infection.
I think if you’ve been around people and may have exposed them, I think it’s polite and in a good way to let them know that they may want to get tested themselves.
On the depletion of federal funding for COVID measures and whether this is a normal progression
I guess it depends on what you call normal. Is it how we have approached other diseases and fallen short? Absolutely, you are repeating those same mistakes. We ran out of money to reimburse providers for offering tests to uninsured patients. But it’s not just about testing. We’ve also run out of money to reimburse providers for treating uninsured patients, for vaccinating uninsured patients. And it is really unfortunate that we refuse to learn from previous experiences.
I’m not going to tell Congress what to do here. But I think if our goal is to adapt and live with COVID in a way that it doesn’t affect our social or economic lives, our work, then it will mean doing things differently, doing things better, and I hope we do.
The audio for this story was produced by Megan Lim.
Reference-www.wbur.org