In the 1984 movie, Starman, Jeff Bridges plays an alien who has taken human form and is learning by observing. After narrowly avoiding a car accident, he explains to his frightened passenger, “I watched you very carefully. Red light stop, green light go, yellow light go very fast.”
Hello, I’m Dr. Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs at Southeast Missouri State University. Some may feel that the public is interpreting the CDC’s new COVID level guidelines similarly to Starman.
On February 25, the CDC updated its framework to monitor the level of COVID-19 in communities. Dr. Michelle Walensky, CDC director stated that the new framework moves beyond just looking at cases and test positivity to evaluating factors that reflect the severity of disease, including hospitalizations and hospital capacity, and helps to determine whether the level of COVID 19 and severe disease are low, medium, or high in a community.
You can go to the CDC website and look at your county to determine whether your community is in the green, yellow, or red zone and adapt your COVID precautions to protect yourself and others accordingly. If your community is in the yellow zone and you are at high risk for severe disease, you should wear a mask indoors and take other precautions. If you’re in the red zone, everyone should wear a mask indoors in public.
We were able to reach this new milestone because of increased vaccination rates. Vaccination is the best way to prevent serious illness from COVID. If you have not yet received your vaccination or booster, please, “go very fast” to get one.
Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3WtvzmKCQQ
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/t0225-covid-19-update.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html
