It’s Another COVID Summer. This Is All You Need to Know About It.
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe’re at a really different place with the virus than we once were., COVID Summer: What you need to know.
Yes: COVID is going around. While many of the original pandemic tracking pages have shut down, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the number of infections is growing or ‘likely growing’ in 39 states and territories. There’s a variant called FLiRT threatening to put a bit of a damper on summer. You may know a few people who have had COVID in the past few weeks—or possibly you’ve come down with the illness yourself.
I was recently in this camp, and the experience was kind of weird. The other times I’ve had COVID the rules were clear: isolate, test frequently, and wait until symptoms—and that harrowing red line—were firmly gone. A positive COVID test used to feel like the end of the world. But when I had it this time, it felt … anticlimactic.
At this point, most people in the U.S. have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and even those who haven’t are likely to have some immunity from past infections (or perhaps are just able to ward off the virus without even knowing they have it). Hospitalizations and deaths have decreased since the harrowing earlier spikes in the pandemic.
Repeat infections aren’t always milder for everyone, though. And of course no one wants to get the people around them sick, with anything! At the same time, we’re in a fundamentally different spot with this virus than we were a few years ago. Here’s what to know about navigating the new COVID normal.
You don’t (necessarily) have to test anymore.
The CDC’s current guidance still states that ‘people who have symptoms of COVID-19 or who have had known exposure to someone with COVID-19 should be tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection.’ The agency also notes that testing without symptoms ‘may be appropriate in some specific settings.’ (I know I’ll still be testing when I see my 90-year-old grandmother later this summer—or avoiding her altogether if I do feel sick, even with a negative COVID test.)
But testing is no longer part of the ‘core prevention steps’ the agency recommends to the public—and the agency no longer says you need a negative test to leave isolation, stating that you can return to normal activities so long as your symptoms have been improving for 24 hours. The National Health Service in the U.K. even states explicitly that people are not required to do at-home tests for COVID even if they have symptoms.
This shift is an acknowledgement that COVID isn’t so different now from other respiratory illnesses (which can also be bad!). In general, if you feel sick with a cold, it’s less important to identify what exactly is causing it; just take precautions regardless.
Stay at home if you’re sick.
If you’re sick with anything, you really should be staying home. That was always the case for any illness—but a lack of remote work options and a paltry number of sick days have always made ‘try to fight through it as best as possible’ an appealing option (and/or requirement).
Let it be a key lesson of the pandemic that ‘fight through it and head out into the world’ is bad. It is important to give your body time to rest, and important not to infect others. Just like before 2020, you wouldn’t want to get an elderly relative or a friend who is undergoing medical treatment sick with a cold that’s mild for you, but might not be for them.
But also, recognize that society is broken.
Maybe you want to stay home, but your job still requires you to be there in person and you’re out of sick days. Maybe you really wish that people would test before leaving isolation. Maybe you’re out in public and someone is actively coughing next to you.
The choose-your-own-adventure quality to the current stage of the pandemic continues to be weird, uncomfortable, and, for some, even scary. At the end of the day, people have different comfort levels and preferences and access to resources, and may make different choices based on those things. The ongoing spread of illnesses isn’t any one person’s fault.
Consider Paxlovid.
When the antiviral first came out, it was lauded as a miracle drug that could help fight the virus and potentially protect against long COVID. (It also was criticized for its terrible aftertaste and symptom rebound.) But two studies published this year failed to show that taking Paxlovid is associated with lower odds of having lingering COVID symptoms.
Still, for some groups, Paxlovid is useful at reducing the risk of winding up in the hospital or worse due to an acute infection. The CDC notes that ‘if you are at high risk for severe COVID-19, treatment benefits outweigh the potential risks of rebound.’ The agency qualifies high risk as being at least 50 or older or having underlying medical conditions. So, it might be worth checking with your doctor about.
Stay up to date with boosters.
Boosters offer some extra protection against severe infections, especially for adults above 65 and those who are immunocompromised. The Food and Drug Administration just announced plans to update the 2024–2025 formula to match circulating strains, meaning the shots we get the next time around will be better tailored to whatever is going around now. You can even get the vaccine at the same time as your flu shot, which could even maybe make it more effective (though the combination does have a higher likelihood of mild side effects).
I certainly don’t want to get sick again. But when I do–because at this point it’s an inevitability—I know what I’ll do.
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