New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a COVID-19 briefing in New York City.
David Dee Delgado | Getty Images
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state won’t be following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidance on coronavirus testing and urged others to do the same after the agency quietly revised its recommendations to downplay the importance of testing people without symptoms for Covid-19.
“Shame on the people at the CDC,” Cuomo, calling the change in guidance “indefensible.”
The new guidance, which was published on Monday, says that people without symptoms who were in close contact with an infected person for at least 15 minutes “do not necessarily need a test.” The guidance still recommends vulnerable people to get tested if they’ve come within 6 feet of someone with a confirmed infection.
“We’re not going to follow the CDC guidance. I consider it political propaganda. I would caution private companies following the CDC guidance. I think it is wholly indefensible on its face. I think it is inherently self-contradictory. It is the exact opposite of what the CDC has been saying,” Cuomo said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. So either the CDC is schizophrenic or they are admitting error in their first position or this is just political dictations.”
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