By Doha Madani -
NBC News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering adding testing requirements to its new isolation guidelines for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.
The CDC shortened its isolation recommendations from 10 days to five last week for people who test positive for the coronavirus but show no symptoms.
Fauci, the president's top medical adviser, Joe Biden, said the agency is discussing expanding that guidance.
"The CDC is well aware that there has been some pushback on this," Fauci said Sunday on the ABC News 'This Week' program.
"Looking at it again, there may be an option there, that testing could be part of that."
It is not clear if people who test positive will have to spend a longer isolation time or if asymptomatic patients would be able to walk freely as long as they are wearing a mask.
Last week, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the new guidelines do not require the person to be tested at the end of isolation because
PCR tests for COVID-19 can be positive for up to 12 weeks
. long after people are no longer infectious.
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"We also do not know that antigen testing is a good indication of transmissibility at this stage of infection," he said at a briefing at the White House.
"On the other hand, we know that after five days, people are much less likely to transmit the virus and that masking reduces the risk even more."
The CDC's decision to reduce the isolation time was met with rejection and confusion in the past week.
Some health experts argue that it is not based on science and could cause asymptomatic yet infectious people to transmit the coronavirus to others.
Fauci also defended the CDC's decision in an interview Tuesday on the MSNBC news network's "All In with Chris Hayes."
His defense encompassed the decision not to include the evidence.
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The new guidance for shorter isolation was adopted out of concern that the high transmission rate of the omicron variant will have a "negative impact on our ability to maintain the fabric of society," Fauci said.
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The CDC says that the ability of a test to predict infectivity can occur "much, much more by the first five days," Fauci said.
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“Once you get into the latter part of that period, the predictive value of whether someone is infectious or not, there is no real data to say so.
Very little is known about that, ”he commented.
"And that was the basis for the CDC's decision."
