The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just dropped adjusted quarantine guidelines for COVID-19 and vaccinated individuals. This is after an outcry from the airline industry that the guidelines and the surge in Omicron variant cases were causing staffing shortages.

Breaking: CDC is shortening Covid isolation period to 5 days from 10 days.

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) December 27, 2021

It’s a shame they fired all those employees who refused the jab, but I digress….

From the AP:

U.S. health officials on Monday cut isolation restrictions for Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said the guidance is in keeping with growing evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop.

The decision also was driven by a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, propelled by the omicron variant.

Gee, what does this sound like? It sounds as if the CDC is finally treating SARS CoV-2—COVID-19 and its variants like every other virus. Cold and flu contagions are generally within the first 2-5 days of onset of symptoms. If a person has no symptoms, then it is a waste of time forcing them to isolate. But not just time: money, manpower, critical resources.

Why was this so hard for the government to understand? And if this is following the science, then what the heck were they doing a year ago?

Inquiring minds want to know.

It was ultimately, the disruption in the workforce, particularly critical infrastructure like hospitals and emergency services, that lit a match under the CDC. Another group of employees who were unceremoniously fired for refusing vaccination.

You cannot say they were not warned.

CNBC reported four days earlier,

A trade group representing major U.S. airlines urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to halve its recommended quarantine time for individuals with breakthrough cases of Covid-19, warning the current 10 days could lead to labor shortages and flight disruptions.

“As with healthcare, police, fire and public transportation workforces, the Omicron surge may exacerbate personnel shortages and create significant disruptions to our workforce and operations,” Airlines for America CEO Nicholas Calio wrote in a letter to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Thursday.

The letter, which echoes what Delta Air Lines wrote to Walensky on Tuesday, shows the airline industry’s increasing concern about the impact of the guidelines as Covid cases, particularly of the omicron variant, increase around the country.

Airlines for America represents American, United, Delta, Southwest, FedEx, UPS and others.

The CDC didn’t immediately comment.

My guess is that this shift in the CDC guidelines are their comment. Of course, it does not save the cluster-you-know-what of holiday travel cancellations occurring even as I write.

Today alone, the airline industry—and as a direct result the American people—are experiencing:

• Total delays today:  14,405
• Total delays within, into, or out of the United States today:  6,711
• Total cancellations today:  3,137
• Total cancellations within, into, or out of the United States today:  1,373

Well, the CDC is finally catching up to science, as well as economic common sense.

Early research suggests omicron may cause milder illnesses than earlier versions of the coronavirus. But the sheer number of people becoming infected — and therefore having to isolate or quarantine — threatens to crush the ability of hospitals, airlines and other businesses to stay open, experts say.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the country is about to see a lot of omicron cases.

“Not all of those cases are going to be severe. In fact many are going to be asymptomatic,” she told The Associated Press on Monday. “We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science.”

This is all too little, too late. Not to mention, the shifting sands of the CDC, flip-flop Anthony Fauci, and the legacy media have so deeply embedded fear into certain people, that any mention of changing guidelines or the way COVID-19 is being handled, only seems to cause more fear and recriminations.

I have tried to defend the @CDCgov for months against the naysayer hordes. This move disarms and proves that policy based on science is defeated by politics and economics. This is BS pure and simple. Crises does not make fellow citizens expendable! https://t.co/Xm0fUHByB6

— Timothy Ellender, MD, FCCM (@tjelle13) December 28, 2021

You win some, you lose some. We will see which outcry wins the next hour.