A relative of mine works for a federal department in a job that requires some degree of knowledge in life sciences, and I spoke with him last night about this. FYI, he worked at JFK until recently, and now thankfully works elsewhere. I can’t tell any more about him, as I don’t want his job to be impacted.
He told me in no uncertain terms that this is “Health Theater” every bit as much as the TSA is “Security Theater.” IOW, all show, no substance.
He also said that the figure of 150 people/day from West Africa is BS. He said that there are several flights a day from the Nigerian national airline, as well as people who arrive from Europe and South America, with lots of people from West Africa - several hundred per day, and over 1,000 if you include Nigeria. JUST AT JFK. He said that many times they will take extremely circuitous routes - looking almost like drug dealers trying to avoid being tracked - because they might save $10 or $20 on the airfare (yes, they are so poor that saving the few miserable bucks is worth their time).
He said that there is no way to definitively determine if someone has a disease based solely on their temperature, due to simple differences in our genes, general health, age, etc., and that this is easily gamed for a few critical minutes, as is being nauseated - both with a simple pill or 3).
He is staying away from the airport as much as possible.
None of this is beyond basic knowledge or logic, but the fact that a federal employee in the know said it makes all of the nonsense spewing out of DC that much less credible.
This was posted to our official email this morning and then pulled down less than 2 hours later, " more guidance due from the administrator".
In all fairness the guy on the Nigeria flight may have died from a drug overdose if a condom of heroine or cocaine in his gut busted.
Greetings,
Currently, most workers in the U.S. are unlikely to encounter Ebola virus or individuals with Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF). However, exposure to the virus or someone with EHF may be more likely in certain sectors, including the healthcare, mortuary/death care, and airline servicing industries. Workers who interact with people, animals, goods, and equipment arriving in the U.S. from foreign countries with current EHF outbreaks are at the greatest risk for exposure.
Precautionary measures for preventing exposure to the Ebola virus depend on the type of work, potential for Ebola-virus contamination of the work environment, and what is known about other potential exposure hazards. Infection control strategies may have to be modified to include additional selections of personal protective equipment (PPE), administrative controls, and/or safe work practices.