The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that they do not collect information about whether individuals who have contracted and recovered from COVID-19 spread the virus following their recovery.

Attorney Aaron Siri, who represents the anti-vaccination group the Informed Consent Action Network, asked the agency for documents about people transmitting the virus after having recovered from COVID-19. The CDC said in response that "this information is not collected."

The agency later told The Epoch Times that the CDC’s Emergency Operations Center could not locate any records that were related to the request.

On its website, the CDC notes that "for most children and adults with symptomatic SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infection, isolation, and precautions can be discontinued 10 days after symptom onset and after resolution of fever for at least 24 hours and improvement of other symptoms."

The agency also states that "patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can continue to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory specimens for up to 3 months after illness onset in concentrations considerably lower than during illness; however, replication-competent virus has not been reliably recovered and infectiousness is unlikely.

"The circumstances that result in persistently detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA have yet to be determined. Studies have not found evidence that clinically recovered adults with persistence of viral RNA have transmitted SARS-CoV-2 to others. These findings strengthen the justification for relying on a symptom-based rather than test-based strategy for ending isolation of most patients."

The CDC continues to recommend vaccination against COVID-19, noting that "fully vaccinated people are likely infectious for less time than unvaccinated people," and that the probability of "reinfection may increase with time after recovery, consistent with other human coronaviruses, because of waning immunity and the possibility of exposure to viral variants. The risk of reinfection also depends on host susceptibility, vaccination status, and the likelihood of re-exposure to infectious cases of COVID-19. Continued widespread transmission makes it more likely that reinfections will occur."

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