White House to Clarify Covid-19 Guidelines After Tense Senate Hearing

The White House will brief the press on Covid-19 guidelines today at 11:00 ET
16:00 GMT today.

• Today press briefing comes in the wake of a tense Senate hearing on the government’s Covid-19 response with the CDC’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky and the government's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci yesterday.
• Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions criticised the federal response to the Omicron variant. Burr stated that the communication of government guidelines are ‘…a mess’ and '...making things worse’.
• In December, the CDC shortened isolation guidelines to five days for asymptomatic people, and recommended the wearing of masks for another five days. The CDC said that Covid transmission was most likely in the two days before and three days after symptoms. Fauci has appeared to contradict this advice since, advising that negative tests are preferable.
• To compound the problems faced the government the American Medical Association released a statement yesterday on ending isolation after five days without a negative test: ‘Physicians are concerned that these recommendations put our patients at risk and could further overwhelm our health care system. A negative test should be required for ending isolation after one tests positive for COVID-19. Reemerging without knowing one’s status unnecessarily risks further transmission of the virus.'