Covid Mistrust & Misinformation: a nurse’s POV on CDC messaging

In the time it has taken for me to plan for this writing assignment, to do some research and make an outline—the span of less than a week—Omicron is slipping out the side door to make way for its dopplegänger, the aptly named “Stealth BA.2,” which has already arrived on our doorstep. 

Of course, the consistent arrival of new variants is not unexpected. (Uncertainty, as it turns out, is one of the hallmarks of Pandemic-Living.) We collectively understand that we will never really be getting over COVID-19; but rather, like that one terrible roommate we tolerated in college because we needed to make rent, we must learn to live with it.  

Another thing we, as healthcare professionals, understand is that science is ever-evolving. New best practices come out all the time, and we (sometimes begrudgingly) update our practice accordingly. We respect that the scientific process itself is rooted in curiosity and unknowns. What’s more, we expect that in trying to understand its mysterious ways through trial and error, we get it wrong as often as we get it right.

That being said…

What we are witnessing now and over the past 2 years (it’s only been 2 years, right?) as the worlds of science and health administration collide on an ever-increasingly frequent basis can best be described as a shit-show. 

It’s always a rather uncomfortable interaction to witness, and one that has only gotten marginally better since the new science-“believing” administration took the reins last year. What has the potential to be a collaboration, or a partnership, just always seems to be one adolescent shy of a middle school dance. Awkward participants line the gym walls, uncomfortably watching the handful of brave souls who dare to sway under a glittering disco ball spotlight.

Except in this dance, the disco ball is replaced by the soft glow of millions of cell phone screens, thumbs poised to tweet, post, blog, and otherwise rip apart any perceived communicative misstep. 

To keep the childhood analogies going, what we think we hear during such public health  updates has evolved into a demented game of Telephone. Only the trajectory of such friable new information is predictable: a variant emerges, rapidly followed by the making of graphs and the forecasting of trends. Then—alllllll the opinions. When the folks at the CDC step up to their podiums once again, the tap on the microphone is reluctant at best. 

Is this thing on?

Believe me, if people were desensitized to these guideline updates before, these same people are listening now with renewed interest. 

And that’s because it appears that CDC guidelines are now being framed to convenience and appease the private sector—rather than to instruct and reassure the public, for whom they truly must answer to. 

Specifically, I’m talking about the most recent change in isolation guidelines that Omicron preempted. The once-titled, “It Used to Be Prudent To Stay Home With Your Contagious Pandemic-Inducing Viral Illness for 10 Full Days” guideline now reads something like this, “On Second Thought, 5 Days Is Probably More Than Enough. You Know, If you Still Feel Bad on Day 6, Continue to Stay Home, and If You Do Happen To Have a Rapid Test Laying Around (You Won’t), Then Use It! If It’s Negative—PHEW—But,If It’s Positive, ummm…Refer to Page 5B-C of the Appendix (That We Haven’t Yet Written)….so, ummm, yeah. And Keep Wearing Masks for the Right Amount of Days. We Like the Number 5.”

You know the one I’m talking about?

Of course, it did not comfort any healthcare workers to hear that this guideline was specifically crafted with them in mind. In fact, millions of healthcare workers, upon hearing about this   guideline change, reacted with the level of repugnancy reserved for those of us who have continued to work through straight-up trauma for the past two years. 

You could say it touched a nerve. 

(Especially when we learned that a strongly worded letter from Delta Airlines was said to have—ahem—heavily influenced said guideline.)

Now, here’s the part of the story where I will remind my dear readers that it is not what you say but how you say it, that is so critical in times like these.  Because, based upon the science alone, and what very smart and uber-qualified scientists had gathered so far about Omicron, dropping the isolation window does, in fact, line up with the data. The virulence potential of this newbie variant is less than Delta; in other words, it makes folks a lot less sick, for a lot less time. And considering the fact that it has proven itself to be super-duper-duper contagious, it was rightfully predicted to affect a wider swath of the population. Aaaand there is that pesky situation called Keeping the Economy From Grinding to a Complete Halt to consider, too. 

But you see, that’s not how the message came across.  And therein lies the problem. 

From (this) nurses’ POV, we’ve kinda gotten the short-end of a number of pandemic sticks. There was that whole PPE misunderstanding; and then when elective procedures got shut down, some hospitals were out there encouraging those nurses to take mandatory PTO breaks (which they attempted to rebrand as furloughs); and then those same nurses were curiously overlooked in lieu of agency nurses being brought on to the tune of thousand dollar sign-ons; plus all that wishy-washy-ness about who exactly was going to cover sick time for sick nurses away from the job that gave them said sickness.  

At the same time that children were encouraged to make handmade hero posters and thousands participated in heartwarming rounds of applause every damn night across an entire globe…nurses were getting screwed over.

So…whatever version of kid-gloves the CDC needs to don the next time they intend to deliver a guideline update that specifically “guides” frontline healthcare workers, let’s make sure those are not on the same supply chain route as 2020’s N95s and isolation gowns, shall we?

Do better, CDC. 

We care—about our patients, our families, our communities—miraculously, we’re even beginning to care FOR OURSELVES. But we need to know that you care before we care what you know.