Reminders that COVID is still around

I thought COVID was behind me for this season when I finished five days of isolation and five more days of masking after testing positive in late November. It wasn’t.

No, I didn’t test positive again, but my niece Alex did on Christmas Eve when I was at her family’s home. It was back to checking Center for Disease Control and Prevention protocols.

The CDC recommends indoor masking for 10 days after being exposed to COVID, as well as taking an antigen test on the sixth day. An earlier test may not detect the virus. A single test might not either, so a second test is recommended 48 hours later and even a third test after another 48 hours.

After returning home, I had two negative tests 48 hours apart, which most likely indicated I wasn’t infectious, according to public health websites. The CDC says masks may be removed on day 8 after two negative tests. I wore a mask in some settings but not others for the final days. 

I wasn’t perfect but suspect I did better than many do. As COVID rates rise in the winter, a lot of people are being exposed, and not a lot are wearing masks, so I wonder how many are even aware of the CDC recommendations. I know some people who think that one negative test after exposure puts them in the clear, and other people who think that without symptoms, testing isn’t necessary.

Then there are those who don’t trust the CDC after its advice changed so much during the pandemic. A 2021 poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health found that only 52% of Americans have a great deal of trust in the CDC. 

Some object to wearing a mask to protect others. They argue that since vaccines protect recipients from serious illness, and eradicating COVID is an unrealistic goal, people who do the right thing — get vaccinated — should not be made to feel responsible for those who refuse vaccines. 

I’m glad that we no longer live in a society that thinks it’s virtuous to go into work coughing and sneezing. But I’m also weary of the restrictions. Like everyone else, I want the stress of constant vigilance to be over. Dealing with COVID protocols twice in a month is an unwelcome reminder that COVID and its accompanying stress are still with us.