CDC ‘Shielding Approach to Prevent COVID’ is Freaking People Out

Somebody has definitely hit the panic button on social media. I'm not sure if you’ve got glimpse of it yet circulating on Facebook, but the CDC laid down some guidelines/ideas regarding how to slow the spread of COVID-19 and it's freaking people out a bit.

When I first saw it posted a few dozen times, I decided to do some homework and read exactly what the CDC had written. To be honest...it's a little puzzling.

It's called Interim Operational Considerations for Implementing the Shielding Approach to Prevent COVID-19 Infections in Humanitarian Settings

It was posted on the CDC website back in July, but for some reason only right now people are taking a good look at it and reading exactly what it has to say, leaving some  a little worried. Maybe it's the verbiage or the "I saw that in a movie once" terms such as 'Green Zone' that have people confused, but the whole thing seems surreal.

The document does stress, “The purpose of this document is to highlight potential implementation challenges of the shielding approach from CDC’s perspective and guide thinking around implementation in the absence of empirical data.” Basically,  it’s a thought process, but that’s not stopping people from reading into it and voicing their concerns.

The document discusses what is called a 'Shielding Approach'. The CDC describes it as the following:

The shielding approach aims to reduce the number of severe COVID-19 cases by limiting contact between individuals at higher risk of developing severe disease (“high-risk”) and the general population (“low-risk”). High-risk individuals would be temporarily relocated to safe or “green zones” established at the household, neighborhood, camp/sector or community level depending on the context and setting.1,2 They would have minimal contact with family members and other low-risk residents.

shielding approaches been broken down into levels. 

According to the CDC document the whole process would involve levels, and green zones, and well...you get the idea. The plan is meant for an extended duration of implementation time, at least 6 months as well.

So what's the goal of this master plan that's been laid out for us to ponder? Well the CDC states, "the shielding approach is intended to alleviate stress on the healthcare system and circumvent the negative economic consequences of long-term containment measures and lockdowns by protecting the most vulnerable"

Will it happen? Hard to say yes or no, but it's making its way about social media so be ready for for a whole slew of opinions and concerns sure to surface.

You can read the entire document here.