President Joe Biden has been a very busy guy in terms of making the lives of American citizens much harder, and to put the icing on this crap cake, he’s going to now make it necessary to go through even more steps just to fly from one place in America to another.
According to Fox News, Biden is now looking to force you to take a COVID-19 test to fly domestically on top of having to deal with the TSA searching your belongings and looking at you in the buff via machines as well. The news came from a CDC source that tells us that the Biden administration is “actively looking” at the requirement:
Dr. Marty Cetron, director for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Tuesday that the administration is “actively looking” into imposing the domestic travel testing requirement.
“We also have to look at the possible planning in domestic travel,” Cetron said. “We’re actively looking at it. We realize that there’s been a dramatic evolution and increase in both testing platforms and testing capacity.”
Cetron said the conversation on the matter is “ongoing” as they work to determine the type of testing and where it would take place.
No further details were released on the potential mandate. Nonetheless, it is a “really important part” in combating the pandemic, he said.
The entire plan would effectively mimic the international testing requirement that took effect Tuesday.
The question is, is this level of coronavirus prevention necessary?
The answer is, likely not. Domestic flights won’t stop the spread of the virus in any meaningful way as a virus already in wide circulation isn’t going to be deterred by the stoppage of its transmission via the skyways. The virus is still going to find its way around the country through other forms of domestic travel. Motorists, busses, trains, and other forms of ground transportation are going to be transmitting the virus just as effectively if not more so.
Two other factors to consider.
What are the costs of these tests and can the federal government get enough of them to the airports and keep them stocked to keep up with the massive amount of flyers going to and from destinations every hour of every day? Also, is it time-effective as well as cost-effective? How fast can these tests be completed?
What’s more, the fallout of so many people not being able to make their flight should also be considered. Many people require being present for deals, inspections, reviews, and more. Preventing so many people from traveling would effectively stop business in its tracks, further affecting an already hurting economy.
That’s not even factoring in the loss of trust the airline industry would go through due to fears they wouldn’t be able to travel and thus a loss of business and revenue.
So many factors revolving around these tests would add up to a major change in the way Americans travel and for what is surely going to be absolutely no payoff.
What’s more, the precaution seems unnecessary. According to USA Today, an in-depth Harvard study done back in October found air travel to be a relatively safe way to travel and even found it to be safer than many routine activities we undertake throughout the day:
A 187-page study by Harvard scientists released Tuesday concluded that air travel “is as safe as or substantially safer than the routine activities people undertake during these times.” The study points to the ventilation systems on planes that refresh the air every two to three minutes, and new measures including heavy-duty disinfecting, strict face mask enforcement and social distancing during boarding and deplaning. The Harvard researchers said the ventilation system in the cabin “effectively counters the proximity travelers are subject to during flights.”
It says those factors combine to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission on a plane to below that at grocery stores or restaurants. But the authors said there is further room for improvement to minimize the risk, including even better social distancing when boarding and exiting, and keeping airplane ventilation systems on when the plane is parked at the gate, a practice not in place at all U.S. airlines.
It would appear that any steps that are taken toward making it more complicated to travel in an effort to restrict the virus’s spread would be little more than political showboating.
