COVID-19: “Testing at the first time you have symptoms, that’s really the most important time to test,” says Dr. Payal Patel

Dr. Payal Patel, infectious diseases physician at University of Michigan, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the CDC’s isolation guidelines, plus how schools are dealing with the Omicron surge.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: We're going to keep talking about how all of this is impacting not only the workplace and investments, but children. And we're going to do that with Dr. Payal Patel, infectious disease physician, University of Michigan. Good to have you back. Chicago, they closed schools, and they went back to the digital learning, which a lot of parents say no way. We even have our mayor in New York saying that it's safe for the kids. It's safer for them to be in school. Which is it?

PAYAL PATEL: Yeah, I know. It's really a tough time. You know, we've been under tough times for so long. I think that I would take this as a message to there are still so many parents out there that have you decided to wait or just aren't sure about vaccinating their kids. You know, you look around, and you see how many folks have COVID, people you know in your family, people you work with. You know, it's really easy right now to go out, go to work, go to the grocery store, go to school, and catch COVID.

So the best thing that you could really do as a parent would be trying to make sure that your own kids, your nephews, your nieces, people in your family, are getting vaccinated. And again, as we build up immunity amongst children and all age groups, it's going to be a lot safer moving forward. That's what I would take away.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Dr. Patel, some might say that the CDC is already struggling with a credibility problem. Given all these changes, these rapid changes to testing, to vaccination protocols, what would you say to those who really are just getting whiplash from all of these changes and guidelines? And of course now the latest one being around the five-day testing, no testing now requirement coming up from the CDC.

PAYAL PATEL: Yeah, you know, it is a little bit more complex than one would first think. And you would think after this long dealing with COVID-19, everything would be straightforward. But the virus itself is tricky. We've seen different variants coming out. One thing that I would say just from working in the hospital is that testing at the first time you have symptoms, that's really the most important time to test. So if you're able to get your hands on a test, you have symptoms, you've had an exposure, that is the most important time to get a test.

Now, [AUDIO OUT] at five, seven, or 10 days, the test is not quite able to tell you if you're still infectious or not. And that is really where some of this confusion is coming from. So again, if you yourself have been exposed or you have symptoms, it's really at the beginning when that testing really, really helps us figure out what should happen next in the decision tree.

ADAM SHAPIRO: How do we explain the fact that-- and I think all of us have friends who have now tested positive at some point for COVID, especially with omicron. And yet somebody in the household might be caring for that person who has a mild case because they're boosted and have the vaccination. And the other person never tested positive, never gets anything. Is that because the vaccine is working, or is it just luck?

PAYAL PATEL: Oh, man, that's a great question. So, again, remembering that the whole point of these vaccines was to keep us out of the hospital and keep us from getting too sick, from going to the hospital, ending up in the ICU. And so if you are someone who's been put in that position and are near someone else who's gotten infected, maybe you did get infected, but you end up being completely asymptomatic, not really having much more than cold symptoms, and you're both vaccinated, that really is the vaccines doing their job.

But I would say right now in the community, it really-- I think masking is very important right now. If you're, let's say, at the gym, and people are around you unmasked coughing, you have no idea who is infectious, who does have COVID. Testing at that point is not going to be as important as trying to protect yourself with a mask.

EMILY MCCORMICK: In terms of what you're seeing as a physician, are you seeing patients coming in with moderate to severe infections who have been vaccinated and/or boosted at this point?

PAYAL PATEL: Yeah, that's a great question. So many of the folks that we have in the hospital, I would say probably greater than 90%, are unvaccinated. So the folks that end up getting admitted and end up getting really sick with a moderate or severe infection often are unvaccinated. Now the folks who would potentially have been boosted, there's usually something going on with their immune system. And so that ends up, thankfully, being very few of the people that we do see in the hospital.

However, in the ER, we're seeing all sorts of people, people who may not have any symptoms, but wanted to get tested. And so I would say to people who are thinking about going to the ER, really across the US right now, if it's for something as mild as getting a test, I would stay at home and try to get a test locally than go to the ER for that reason at this moment.