Originally Posted by
paul21
It's not so much logic as it is legal restrictions. The federal government has some authority to restrict movements internationally, but interstate movement is mostly protected. It'd be up to individual airlines to impose a pre departure test to board, and then there's IDB rules etc., otherwise individual states can only impose a limited quarantine on arrival.
You're stating this as if some central medical authority decided it was best to test international arrivals and not domestic flights and therefore is a hypocrite or nonsensical. In practice this authority may have wanted both but could only secure one.
There is a Central Medical Authority. The CDC. They put out a weekly report called the MMWR that I have subscribed to for years,
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html But the CDC is or can be mired in politics. Very political 2016 to 2020, less so now it appears to me. So yes they likely went for the best deal they could make considering the authority wielders at the time, and now they are living with that decision. And that's not the only medical conflict in government. The Secret Service does not always agree with the White House Medical office concerning who should be on call when a principal visits anyplace out of DC. Hopefully its better now.