Can Preflight Coronavirus Testing Get Travelers Back On Planes?

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26 Окт 2020, 20:36

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The Tampa International Airport has started COVID-19 testing for passengers with a boarding pass or proof of a reservation for a flight in the near future.

Danny Valentine/Hillsborough County Aviation Authority

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Danny Valentine/Hillsborough County Aviation Authority

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«We’re just happy to be able to come and visit,» Matt Battiata said after presenting proof of the family’s negative coronavirus tests to airport workers on the first day Hawaii reopened to those who test negative for the coronavirus.

«We got a rapid test, it took about 30 minutes, you know, a nasal swab test,» Battiata said, adding that «everybody’s clear, yeah, so we’re very excited.»

Airlines are excited, too, to get paying customers back on their planes, so they’re helping facilitate coronavirus testing for travelers heading to certain destinations, like Hawaii. And some are even offering on-the-spot, rapid response testing at the airport before passengers go through security.

United Airlines was first to announce on-the-spot pre-flight testing, which it offers only at San Francisco’s airport for Hawaii bound travelers. For results in 15 minutes, it costs you $250, on top of the airfare. There are also less expensive drive-up or clinic testing options, which provide results usually in less than 48 hours.

United and other airlines have worked with Hawaii public health officials to make sure the tests meet the state’s requirements for accuracy and reliability.

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United Airlines was the first to announce on-the-spot pre-flight testing, which it offers only at San Francisco’s airport for Hawaii bound travelers.

Courtesy of United Airlines

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Courtesy of United Airlines

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«What the airlines and airports are trying to do is remove every possible obstacle people have when they start to think about taking a trip,» says Henry Harteveldt, president and travel industry analyst for the Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry research firm. «They want to make it as easy for people to travel and to travel confidently.»

But public health experts say not all rapid response tests are equal and some are not all that accurate.

«Most of the rapid tests that are inexpensive and can be done frequently and easily have a lower sensitivity,» says Mercedes Carnethon, an epidemiologist and professor of pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. «And what that means is that the likelihood that they will actually identify a positive case in an asymptomatic individual is fairly low.»

«You can get a negative test but in fact, a day or two later, your viral levels can surge and then you’re really quite infectious,» Carnethon says. She adds that she fears on-the-spot, rapid result testing may give travelers «a false sense of security,» especially those coming from areas where the number of COVID-19 cases are surging again, who may then believe that they are coronavirus-free, when they still may be carrying the virus.

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«I don’t see a reality in which you can test your way out of the behaviors that are directly related to preventing the spread of the disease,» Carnethon says, pointing to high profile events, such as the White House Rose Garden ceremony where President Trump announced he was nominating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. «Much was made over statements that everyone was tested and tested negative before they were able to come. And yet we see transmission.»

Nonetheless, a growing number of airline, travel industry and business groups are calling for widespread pre-flight coronavirus testing to eliminate the need for travel bans and quarantines, in an effort to jump start an industry decimated by the pandemic. Industry figures show that domestic air travel is down more than 60% from pre-pandemic levels and international travel is down 78%.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Travel Association, the International Air Transport Association, Airlines for America, airline employee unions and others are calling on the Trump Administration, state governors and several foreign countries «to pursue a risk-based and data-driven approach to COVID-19 testing which would obviate the need for quarantines and travel bans so that the travel network can be safely reopened.»

The group say 18 states currently have some kind of quarantine requirement in place for travelers from out of state. The U.S. still bans entry by nearly all non-U.S. citizens who recently were in China, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, Iran and parts of Europe. And nearly all of Europe still prohibits most U.S. travelers from entering.

The groups say «the continued restrictions on international travel and differing state and international quarantine policies are hampering the recovery of the U.S. economy.»