Airport Hysteria
The talking heads are all talking, and trying to come up with ways of sifting through the millions of air travelers and nabbing the would-be suspects. Not terrorists. We’re talking something more important–BIRD FLU!
I would agree that it is a good idea to have contingency plans in place, only these seem so half-assed. It’s one thing to try to contain a disease like small pox, which is extremely obvious. A person breaks out in hideous sores, so voila, you catch your small pox victim and get the machinations of isolation and quarantine going.
But catching bird flu among airline travelers. Okay, here’s the brilliant ideas that they’ve come up with so far:
Quarantines, authorities say, will only be put into place if a plane lands carrying people from a flu-infected country who are coughing and showing other symptoms.
Here is what might happen if bird flu is discovered on a flight:
* Officials will isolate the possibly infected passengers.
* The suspected passengers will be tested at a local hospital.
* Other passengers on the flight will be quarantined at the airport for 24 to 48 hours.
* The passengers will then spend up to 10 days somewhere else until it is determined if they have been exposed to the bird flu.
* Shelters in large cities, such as those that housed Hurricane Katrina victims, could handle at least a thousand quarantined passengers, officials have said.No official plan has been put into place by the United States government, but some airports say they are working on their own plans.
What exactly is a flu-infected country? Does Romania count, because they’ve detected a turkey with bird flu? How many cases of bird flu do you need to be considered “flu-infected?” And does that mean birds that are infected or people?
Due to the dry air and lack of oxygen on airplanes, I usually end up with a stuffy nose. Sometimes even cough a few times. So if I happen to be sitting on a plane coming in from Croatia, where a case has been discovered, will I be nabbed and thrown in quarantine? If my neighbor sitting next to me happens to sneeze, due to an allergy to airplane food, and the airline officials immediately think “bird flu,” then will I have to sit in the airport for 24-48 hours?
Airplanes are breeding grounds for all kinds of airborne illnesses, I’ll grant you that, but it is unclear if these tactics will be put in place only if the bird flu does mutate to human to human transmission, and begins to affect a lot of people, or if this is something planned for right now. Just in case….
I suppose flight attendants will soon have to report anyone who requests a tissue on a plane. And all coughing will be reported to the authorities, even if caused by a person choking on their bloody Mary.