I Just Got Back From Coronavirus Hot Zone, and No One at JFK Seemed to Notice

[LiberalArkie]

NEW YORK — When I arrived at New York’s JFK Airport on Thursday after spending a few days outside a coronavirus hot zone in Italy, I was expecting a shakedown: a temperature check at customs and some questions about where exactly in the region I’d been and if I had come into contact with any sick people during my stay.

Instead, I breezed right through security, faster than any other time I can remember

The lack of precautions was jarring considering where I’d just been. I had been on a reporting trip to the Lombardy region of Italy, the epicenter of that country's coronavirus outbreak. According to the Italian government, of the 4,636 people in the country who’ve contracted the virus, around half got it in Lombardy. And while I didn't go inside the exclusion zone, or in any way come in contact with anyone exposed, the mere fact that I'd been to Lombardy should have raised a red flag.

When I landed at Milan’s Malpensa Airport two days earlier, Italian officials took the temperature of every person on my flight. And when I left Italy, all passengers on my flight had to fill out a sheet of paper detailing where they had been in the last two weeks, their contact information, and where they would be staying in New York. And I think I underwent a thermal scan, though I can’t say for sure.

Sniparooney

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akwyna/i-just-got-back-from-a-coronavirus-hot-zone-and-no-one-at-jfk-seemed-to-notice

[beachbumbob]

1. top down response and not a surprise is it?

trump admin will hold back as long as possible and of course way TOO late to make an impact if these spirals out of control in the US

[rocktivity]

10. Yep, and Trump may be "forced" to "quarantine" voters

especially in Democrat-heavy areas of New Jersey, California, Texas.


rocktivity

[beachbumbob]

20. voters can always vote by mail-in ballot, not too concerning

[rocktivity]

25. Hopefully in the envelopes you don't have to lick

rocktivity

[tanyev]

2. Rest of the world: "This is getting really bad." USA: "Hold my beer!"

[smirkymonkey]

4. "We're Number One!"

[uponit7771]

14. +1, China reported CV19 genetic sequence on Jan 12!! We still don't have WHO's mass test kits !!

[dem4decades]

3. Dr Donald J Trump is in charge.

[CrispyQ]

17. ...

[ZZenith]

26. God help me, I love that cartoon.

Only reasonable explanation for what we’re facing.

[spinbaby]

5. Temperature screening is routine in other countries

Even with no pandemic going on. I remember Japan had scanners you walk by and instructions to turn yourself in to the health station if you feel unwell.

[Wednesdays]

6. LIHOP

I wouldn't be surprised.

[DanTex]

7. I've heard the same thing from a lot of people anecdotally.

[3catwoman3]

8. How interesting.

At the pediatric office where I work, ALL families are asked about travel and symptoms 3 times- by the front desk when they arrive, by the nursing staff when they are roomed, and then by us (the doc or me - the NP). THREE times.

This screening is even required for ALL phone calls handled by our triage nurses, even if there is no illness involved - if a parent is calling for a refill for her kid’s Zoloft/birth control pills/eczema ointment etc, if someone needs an extra copy of a sports form, if they are asking about the date of the last tetanus booster, and so forth. That the triage nurses are not allowed to use their discretion about when to ask these questions seems like more than a little overkill to me.

[soryang]

16. That's interesting

I went to a community clinic in late February, located on a public hospital campus literally right next to two colleges with significant numbers of international students particularly those from Asia and the middle east. The staff was sneezing and coughing quite a bit, complaining they had caught a cold from one patient or another. I wasn't questioned once whether I had traveled anywhere.

While I was there, I thought, when it comes, the virus will rip through this population in no time.

[LAS14]

9. Kennedy Airport responded to her Tweet about this in this way.

In another thread here on DU, her Tweet was posted and this was my reply.

If you click on her name in the Tweet, this is what you get. Seems reasonable to me.

Travel - State Dept
@TravelGov
#Italy: The Italian government is implementing enhanced screening and quarantine measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As of 12am Mar. 3, passengers on U.S.-bound flights with a temperature 99.5 or higher are not being permitted to board. https://it.usembassy.gov/health-alert-u-s-embassy-rome-italy-march-4-2020/

This is NOT to deny that Trump is downplaying this emergency in a scandalous, dangerous way. I'm only wanting us Dems not to generate fodder for the fake news meme. That's what Russia wants.

[Ms. Toad]

22. No, it's not reasonable.

Remember the folks who developed fevers while being repatriated from the Diamond Princess? Pre-boarding screening is not sufficient.

There needs to be screening on arrival - and, depending on where one is coming from, potentially quarantine - or at least mandatory self-monitoring for the 14 day incubation period.

A judge in our community returned on Sunday from Italy. No one in Philadelphia or Cleveland asked any questions at all. Her relatives were sensible enough to refuse to hug her - and when the daughter she met in Italy became ill she called the local health department (my spouse is a member of the board, so this is relatively direct information). They had no information on had about how to handle the situation. 6 hours later, they suggested the judge self-quarantine for 14 days from the last contact with their daughter (about 6 days prior to leaving Venice). I believe it was turned into a mandatory quarantine - but I am concerned that as of Monday I will be one handshake away from COVID 19, beause I have students who work in the courthouse - and likely some who work for the judge.

[LAS14]

23. And did your degree in public health tell you not to take into account the ramifications of such a

rule? nt

[Ms. Toad]

24. My advanced degree in mathematics tells me the implications of ignoring it.

A month out, I was 3 days off in predicting when COVID 19 would surpass the SARS deaths.

The financial and social implications of not slowing the spread of virus will be far worse than the up front pain required to slow its transmission.

Aside from which, the first step that both I (and the traveler) were pointing out was that the failure to screen international travelers upon arrival from countries with a significant number of confirmed cases - like Italy is assinine. They are not currently doing that. A second, lesser step, is to at least require self-monitoring and reporting for anyone ariving from such a country. The cost to that is virtually nill. It will not prevent transmission - since much transmission occurs prior to having symptoms. But it is better than nothing. The final step - quarantining in some form (whether in-home quarantine, or elsewhere) is probably warranted at this point.

But if you what what is happening in Washington to become the norm throughout the country - carry on.

[SunSeeker]

11. We're fukt.

[dalton99a]

12. Italy is a major source of new cases

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Only time will truly tell of the damage this virus will do, despite the lackluster efforts by the...

rump administration to acknowledge that the CV is here and efforts need to be underway (and these efforts should have started when the outbreaks started happening around the world months ago, not the 1/2 hearted efforts going on now. Everyone I've talked to here laugh about the so called rump efforts to stem or even address the basic preventative measures to stem the spread or flow of the CV. They laugh.

Not to belittle the CV efforts going on now to address this disease, rump literally through his (note the words I chose here), own efforts and his own efforts alone, as well as pence's efforts in stifling the words of medical personnel who are currently dealing w/ the CV (and perhaps delaying critical information from reaching the public) has perhaps allowed CV to spread unhampered more than it should. The states, rightfully, had to step up their own efforts to deal w/ the CV.

rump has doomed his election chances in November 2020. Because of his clearly incompetent actions as president, in being more concerned about the stock market than people's lives. This is as it should be, and unfortunately it took a disease to open the eyes of a lot more people who hadn't really paid attention to rump and his ignorant tweets (not everyone tweets or watches the news cycles).

[BlueIdaho]

15. Just flew through SeaTac

Never seen so many masks, disinfectant bottles, and cleaners at work! Most food vendors wearing nitrile gloves and some had masks. Alaska Air is running disinfectant crews through each plane between flights. Hats off to Washington state!

[luvtheGWN]

18. Yes, Air Canada, WestJet and Porter Airlines

are doing the same thing -- spraying with hospital-grade disinfectant.

But this shouldn't be voluntary -- it should be mandatory. The really worrisome thing is the supply -- of disinfectant, hand sanitizers etc. (and who knows, maybe even soap!). My two local drugstores have been out of hand sanitizer for over a week. Fortunately, I have a large bottle of it because when I bought it, I thought it was liquid soap.

Ah, serendipity!

[BlueIdaho]

21. You are so right!

I’m afraid panic buying is taking hold, good thing they haven’t closed the hand sanitizer factories!

[tinrobot]

19. But they patted down the immigrants and put them in cages, right?

Priorities.

[getagrip_already]

27. Other countries are beginning to enforce mandatory quarantines on new arrivals coming

from countries that have cases of the virus - including the usa. The state department has a website you can check if you will be traveling. Best to know before you go.

But that is what they are doing and we are not.