At this point, the U.S. practice of screening incoming passengers at airports for #COVID19 has *caused* more cases of the disease than it has identified.
Two airport screening contractors at LAX have tested positive for coronavirus. newsweek.com/medical-screen…
At the same time, CDC officials have announced that the US had screened >53,000 incoming passengers for COVID-19; one case has been found via this screening.
U.S. policy is to screen incoming travelers arriving from some “high-risk” countries for #COVID19. That includes Iran and China, but not Italy or South Korea. washingtonpost.com/transportation…
Airport screening has always been of questionable public health value. It mostly gives the illusion of border protection, without actually delivering it. sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/w…
In fact, it is estimated that under the best of circumstances, airport screening may pick up only 1 out of every 4 cases it is supposed to. eurosurveillance.org/content/10.280…
The broader issue is the U.S. has its own domestic epidemic to worry about now. There has already been significant transmission inside the U.S. (without more testing we don’t know exactly how much).
In fact, U.S. is now probably just as likely to export cases of COVID-19 to other countries as to import them. At least 4 Canadian cases are tied to U.S. travel. globalnews.ca/news/6641119/c… Australia has also reported a case originating in the U.S.
Now there are three more TSA screeners positive
