FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - UA experience of flying COVID+ or next to someone that is?
Old Nov 15, 2020 | 4:31 am
  #60  
st530
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Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
Absolutely not. Uh. False positives anyone. And plenty of those.

Can you imagine getting an email from an airline, any airline - that said - you were seating near a positive case.

Can you imagine the lawsuits. Uh - what is near? 3 rows. Were they next to me? Behind me? 3 rows over but other aisle?

That’s why no business will get into the business of contact tracing. That’s why it’s left to local health authorities
I think you are confusing “contract tracing” — which is indeed a government function involving trained persons tasked with identifying a positive individual’s full chain of close-contact exposures — and a business choosing (or not) which information to reveal to its customers.

“Dear Flyer:
United was recently informed by a passenger sitting within X rows of you on Flight x on Date x that s/he tested positive for Covid-19 within 7 days of your flight. United has no way of verifying the accuracy of this information. Please consult all applicable CDC and local regulations and guidelines [or whatever stock disclaimers UA thinks are appropriate].
Thank you for your continuing loyalty to United.”

It is hard for me to discern how this could be a basis for a lawsuit by anyone who did (or did not) receive such an email.

Anybody who can pay a filing fee can file a lawsuit. But anyone who did based upon such an email would in my opinion be a fool — as would his or her lawyer.

Incidentally, everyone with a view on this keeps ignoring (or refusing) to state or speculate whether UA informs its own crew about a self-reported positive test from a passenger, even as it evidently chooses not to inform other passengers.
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