CDC admits mistakes, promises overhauls and streamlines guidelines

while continuing to ignore the immunocompromised

On August 18th, Dr Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for the Disease Control (CDC) issued a public admission of agency missteps . The internal organization examination she initiated was unflattering. The feedback comprised interviews conducted with over 100 people and concluded the CDC needed to “respond much faster to emergencies and outbreaks of disease, and provide information in a way that ordinary people and state and local health authorities can understand and put to use” according to New York Times reporters Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland.

Earlier this month, the CDC streamlined COVID guidelines. They no longer differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in their infection guidelines although immunocompromised people are still advised to quarantine following a known COVID exposure and confer with their doctor if things go south.

“This version puts a lot more onus on the individual to mitigate their own risk. This is a problem because disease outbreaks are a community problem,” Katrine “Dr Kat Epidemiologist” Wallace explains to her TikTok and Instagram following, adding that there is good evidence that CDC specified timelines are inadequate.

The Global Healthy Living Foundation’s (GHLF) Creaky Joints article, CDC Releases New COVID-19 Guidelines, More Lax Restrictions by Susan Jara, provides a comprehensive exposition of the updates. GHLF is currently polling the community about how the relaxed guidelines will impact immunocompromised individuals’ risk tolerance. Dr. Katelyn Jetelina’s analysis of these updates are available in Your Local Epidemiologist article on Substack is an excellent resource to follow if you want the layman friendly version of CDC-speak and an informed outside perspective on its significance.

On a personal note, thanks to a good antibody count, I was able to travel for the first time in two-and-a-half years this summer. My next few Immunocompromised Times posts will detail what I did to protect myself from COVID during a week in NYC visit.

Back in Denver now, I’m enjoying outdoor yoga classes surrounded by old growth pine trees in city parks. With the edge of the horizon flushed pink on summer evenings the scent of grass is strong enough to penetrate my N95 mask as I shift from down dog to tabletop.

Yoga was an indoor studio activity for me in the before-times. In the early days of the pandemic I relied on the DownDog app, Adrienne’s You Tube channel and zoom classes taught through studios I used to go with. As someone who is immunocompromised I also cannot afford not to acknowledge that outdoor, real-life yoga classes are worth the effort when weather and community makes it possible to participate.

Another way I stay engaged, creative and connected is by participating in comic drawing workshops using zoom. “Staying open to beauty — to mystery — is not just subversive. It’s a key to our survival,” explained JD Lunt as he introduced his One True Thing, diary comic workshop as part of the Friday Night Comics series sponsored by Sequential Artists Workshop. Explaining how his love of jazz made him want to embrace more spontaneous storytelling practices Lunt, whose work you can also follow on Instagram, went on to share a diary comic about a 9:00 p.m. walk.

The illustration below is how I used Lunt’s prompt and the SAW workshop to document the first “true thing” to come to mind y and the evening yoga class that followed.

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