Biden with COVID: Protocols for sickness four years after pandemic

President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, leading some to question what the current protocols are four years after the start of the global pandemic.

A press statement from press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the president’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, said that Biden would be self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

O’Connor said given the diagnosis, “the President will be self-isolating in accordance with [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance for symptomatic individuals,” noting that Biden was experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms and general malaise.

The most recent CDC data from early July shows a 23.5% increase in emergency visits from COVID compared to the prior week, with many experts concerned about a summer surge of the virus.

In 2023, the CDC reports that more than 916,300 people were hospitalized due to COVID and more than 75,500 died from the illness.

Here is everything to know about current COVID guidance from the CDC.

In March, the CDC updated COVID isolation guidelines to scrap a specific timetable for isolation after testing positive.

The CDC issued guidance that COVID symptoms should be treated like other respiratory viruses, including flu and RSV, and people should stay home when they are sick.

CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in March that people should “use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others,” including vaccination, treatment, and staying home when sick.

The agency recommends only resuming normal activity when you have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications, such as Tylenol or ibuprofen.

For the next five days after that, the CDC recommends taking extra precautions, such as enhanced hygiene, wearing a tight-fitting mask, and keeping a distance from others when possible.

This is the third time in two years Biden has tested positive for COVID and needed to self-isolate.

The CDC issued recommendations for the 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine schedule in June in order to prevent severe disease, hospitalization, and death.

Because the virus mutates relatively frequently, COVID vaccine recommendations are similar to those for flu, with a new vaccine each year to protect against severe infection in the fall and winter months.

According to the CDC, receiving an updated COVID vaccine “can restore and enhance protection against the virus variants currently responsible for most infections and hospitalizations in the United States.”

Jean-Pierre said in her press statement on Wednesday that the president is “vaccinated and boosted.”

The most up-to-date COVID vaccines for the 2024-25 season will likely be available in the early fall.

The press release announcing Biden’s positive COVID result also said that he had taken his first dose of Paxlovid, the antiviral pill that, if taken within the first five days of symptoms, can reduce symptoms.

Studies published this year have found that Paxlovid may not be helpful for patients who are at high risk for severe disease from COVID, but the drug did reduce hospitalization and death compared to those given a placebo.

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Only individuals at high risk for severe COVID can qualify for a Paxlovid prescription. Those over 50 years of age and those with certain other risk factors, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and weakened immune systems, are also eligible.

Pfizer, the maker of Paxlovid, estimates that 75% of the U.S. population has at least one risk factor that would make them candidates for the antiviral.