TSA officers who tested positive for coronavirus did pat-downs at SJC airport

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-infected-tsa-employees-at-mineta-san-jose-airport-patted-down-passengers-put-hands-on-travel-documents/

by sahin-boydas • 6 years ago

103 71 6 years ago

mercurynews.com

Cyberdog• 6 years ago

If the entire NBA got suspended over one sick employee, could the same please happen to the TSA over two?

mythrwy• 6 years ago

Maybe when there are no flights they won't be needed anyway.

MegaButts2• 6 years ago

The TSA was never really needed for anything other than security theater and creating bullshit jobs for politicians.

https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/1/8701741/tsa-screenings-hom...

leggomylibro2• 6 years ago

Probably not; it's basically a massive jobs program to employ the otherwise unemployable, and furloughing them all would twist the knife into the economy because most TSA agents are in income brackets that stop spending when their paychecks pause.

MegaButts2• 6 years ago

I've always hated how we don't create useful jobs for people that need work. There is so much infrastructure in this country that is deteriorating, why aren't we doing anything about that?

Instead we create jobs that inconvenience everyone and provide no real value. In fact, they're harming the airline industry, so you could argue they're a net negative on the economy.

B-Con• 6 years ago

It wasn't suspended over the one, that was just the signal that they were doomed.

The alternative was to wait a few weeks until a large fraction of the teams had incomplete rosters, owners and fans were furious at the asymmetrical competition, and there was social/legal pressure to stop sponsoring events drawing large crowds into social proximity, and then cancel.

They knew that was coming and it's better to pull the plug early.

brudgers4• 6 years ago

The US sports industry shut down as soon as WHO declared pandemic. The declaration facilitates insurance claims for lost revenue and offers a sound defense in response to lawsuits for harm caused by cancelled events.

I suspect the TSA as a potential transmission vector was a consideration in restricting travel from Europe. This is not a scenario without existing contingency plans. Within hours of the WHO declaration, Doctors Without Borders was outside my local Walmart. That wasn’t a phone call earlier in the day.

netsharc• 6 years ago

I suspect the TSA as a potential transmission vector was a consideration in restricting travel from Europe.

Woah, so much spin, I think I could harvest the energy out of this sentence to solve the planet's energy needs.

oillio• 6 years ago

Almost all insurance policies specifically exclude pandemics. This tragedy won't hit insurance companies directly much at all.

jjeaff5• 6 years ago

Does the WHO have any clout when it comes to declarations like that? Wouldn't it need to be a state or federal declaration?

ck2• 6 years ago

This is why the country is doomed because it's happening now at every workplace, school, store and club.

Everyone is breathing the same moist air when studies are showing it can survive for up to three hours in the air AND that you can catch it more than once since for some reason the body doesn't fully make immunity.

And people feel absolutely no responsibility to isolate themselves, everyone coughing and sneezing at any store I try to go to. They are just going to do whatever they want to do.

Imagine the world by the end of this year. Possible literal decimation.

pdonis2• 6 years ago

studies are showing it can survive for up to three hours in the air

What studies are these? All the info I have seen talks about transmission requiring close contact with an infected person or directly breathing in droplets from their cough or sneeze.

you can catch it more than once since for some reason the body doesn't fully make immunity

Where are you getting this from?

sokoloff• 6 years ago

Not GP and not signing that content, but it does seem like there are two strains of it; if true, you can get it twice.

kitcar• 6 years ago

I believe re point #1, it's this study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033217v...

Abstract: "32 HCoV-19 (SARS-2) has caused >88,000 reported illnesses with a current case-fatality ratio of ~2%. Here, we investigate the stability of viable HCoV-19 on surfaces and in aerosols in comparison with SARS-CoV-1. Overall, stability is very similar between HCoV-19 and SARS-CoV-1. We found that viable virus could be detected in aerosols up to 3 hours post aerosolization, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel. HCoV-19 and SARS-CoV-1 exhibited similar half-lives in aerosols, with median estimates around 2.7 hours. Both viruses show relatively long viability on stainless steel and polypropylene compared to copper or cardboard: the median half-life estimate for HCoV-19 is around 13 hours on steel and around 16 hours on polypropylene. Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of HCoV-19 is plausible, as the virus can remain viable in aerosols for multiple hours and on surfaces up to days."

It's not peer reviewed yet so reader beware

srcmap• 6 years ago

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/487110-tests-indicate-...

A study from scientists at Princeton University, University of California and the National Institutes of Health indicated that the COVID-19 virus could remain viable in the air "up to 3 hours post aerosolization," while remaining alive on plastic and other surfaces for up to three days.

madengr• 6 years ago

Well I guess allergy season has nothing to do with that coughing and sneezing.

glitcher• 6 years ago

Possibly literally are strong words indeed. More than anything, I fear the mob panic this thinking invokes more than the virus or potential economic collapse. Fear is kinda funny that way - many people fear the future, but I fear the effects of too many people fearing the future.

pengaru3• 6 years ago

Seeing the cellphone footage of Hubei/Wuhan hospitals from weeks ago didn't make me fear mob panic; it made me fear a total paralysis of the health system.

It's tempting to imagine the same situation with Americans instead of Chinese would more resemble a Walmart riot on Black Friday.

But I think when it's a bunch of genuinely sick people filling the hospitals, they're a more docile and incapacitated bunch.

Those still healthy but panicky aren't going to be interested in being in close proximity to large numbers of strangers which is kind of a requirement for a mob to form.

I expect quiet streets, like a zombie apocalypse film, with people minimally venturing out for supplies.

paxys• 6 years ago

Meanwhile the government has its eyes and ears covered and is refusing to test people, just to keep the official numbers down.

r00fus2• 6 years ago

Federal government. State governments are issuing executive orders and declaring state of emergency.

davidw2• 6 years ago

IDK, a lot of them still feel pretty much in the 'muddling' phase. Oregon seems to be taking a "wait and see" approach which is ridiculous because no one can "see" anything without adequate testing! We finally got bans on events over 250 people yesterday, but schools are still open, even if we pulled our kids.

wool_gather3• 6 years ago

The part that's missing here:

Public announcement of when exactly these folks were on duty in the last two weeks so that travellers who came into contact with them can self-identify and get tested.

Or better, just announcement that any traveller that passed through their checkpoint recently can get tested, regardless of the timeframe.

The virus has no interest in helping TSA or politicians save face. We have to start testing and publishing the results.

heimidal• 6 years ago

They aren’t testing most people with symptoms. No way will they start testing random people without.

jvm___• 6 years ago

They can't can they? I thought the US has a shortage of tests and lacks capacity to process them as well.

daniel_iversen• 6 years ago

They aren't doing much of anything really are they? I love that Denmark, with only 400-500 cases took the drastic approach of suspending schools, kindergartens and a lot of public and private people are going home: https://www.thelocal.dk/20200311/denmark-to-shut-all-schools...

alamortsubite• 6 years ago

You're being really generous here. In most cases, we aren't even testing people who are symptomatic and whose BioFire panels come back negative, unless they also happen to have a travel history that includes an affected area overseas.

sp332• 6 years ago

They have started testing people who had contact specifically with people who are known to be infected. So there is a chance.

wool_gather3• 6 years ago

Well, that's the point, isn't it? :/

kyleblarson• 6 years ago

That would actually be helpful and thus not garner clicks.

ekianjo• 6 years ago

The other way to look at it is, are there TSA officers who don't have coronavirus by now?

lolc• 6 years ago

After two weeks they are immune!

throwawaycbxu• 6 years ago

At this point, I am concerned that politics is still taking precedence over saving lives. Australia seems to be doing the right thing, except for travel bans. The government swiftly imposed travel bans on China, South Korea and Iran, but inexplicably held off on Italy for more than a week (a cynic would say that it wasn’t that inexplicable, but let’s not get sidetracked).

The United States seems to be a hotbed of undiagnosed infection, and Americans are still streaming in. Tom Hanks (who, to be fair might have been infected in Australia) could be the tip of the iceberg.

Shutting down travel from the US to Australia might anger the US government, but it would seem to be a prudent action.

The US Schengen travel ban, exempting the UK, also seems to be cynical geopolitics, that could cost the UK more than the rest of Europe.

If geopolitics is a problem, then a full travel ban could be more palatable. The status quo is decidedly uncomfortable.

TSA officers who tested positive for coronavirus did pat-downs at SJC airport

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