Illness and the TSA
 

Twice in 2010, due to sheer luck, I had to fly with an extremely high fever--one so severe I missed six days of work after getting home. Fortunately, the two airports I flew out of while sick (PIT and PHL) were still WTMD-only, so I did not have anything to opt out of.

Several people on this forum have pointed out that the best way to speed up the trip through the TSA moat is to make the experience uncomfortable for the TS"O"s:

- "I opt out of the full body scanner. I will maintain control of my possessions, and I will not go to a private area."
- "By 'resistance', do you mean my penis and testicles?"
- "Those are my testicles!"

So here's my question: if I had opted out of a NoS in favor of a Freedom Grope with an obvious high fever, would that have sped up the Grope? I can make some pretty sick-sounding coughs and mucus-snorting noises if need be...would this speed it up?

While I'm at it, a question about my shiny new GE card. This forum tells me that TDCs seem to have difficulty recognizing their own acceptable ID cards, however, http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...documents.shtm says:
It does not explicitly say Global Entry, so could a 3-striper argue that a GE card is not acceptable? (Yes, I know it has "Sentri" printed on the back side, but this is the TSA we're dealing with.)

I'm basically wondering if anybody has ever had all TS"O"s up to the 3-striper refuse a GE card, forcing them to produce another ID card...i.e., should I go ahead and bring my passport with me just in case?

Thanks!

I regularly use my GE card as a primary ID to clear TSA. Airports were TSAs seem most oblivious to this card: PIT, EWR, and MCO. I normally report it to the manage of that checkpoint that their officers failed to recognize a valid primary and required me to produce an additional ID. One such time at EWR, I had just come off MAD/EWR and had just cleared customs with my GE and when I left to go domestic, was refused when trying to use GE.

Don't get too elaborate with your sounds. I don't want to hear them...

Could backfire on you in a major way. In addition to wanting to be LEOs, DEA, etc - your TSO might want to play doctor. They could determine you have the latest strain of drug resistant TB and be a threat to everyone. This would delay you further as they summon a LEO, the CDC, ....

Given the TSA's penchant for exceeding their mandate, do not be surprised if they try to find a way to keep you from flying if you have a fever or illness. I can think of any number of ways they could try to justify this.

And if I were OP's seatmate - I would applaud TSA for that... Nothing worse than seating to extremely ill/coughing/sneezing/leaking disease spreader in an inclosed steel tube.

The two times I flew with a high fever, I was able to maintain a somewhat healthy outward appearance; I simply felt like $*@% and went straight to bed when I got home. In both cases, if I wanted to avoid any mass transportation while sick, I would have had to either (1) rack up four figures in hotel expenses and a later flight (or bus) home as I waited out the fever, or (2) have Mrs. Mahohmei rent a car one-way and put in two 8-hour driving days to get me home.

Plus, if someone is too contagious to fly (or be in any sort of crowded area), should that be the TSA's job to determine? Their sole job should be to keep WEIs out of airside; nothing more, nothing less. They should not serve as a drug/immigration/fitness/health/porn/morality checkpoint. I'm waiting for the day a bunch of TS"O"s decide that a same-sex or mixed-race couple is not flying today; that would be a can of worms.

Here, I'm not talking about actually flying while sick; I'm talking about making the appearance of sick during the Freedom Grope--talking in a quiet, sickish voice, and coughing and sniffling during the Grope to make the Groper uncomfortable and make him want to finish up ASAP and skip the happy ending.

But tev9999 does have a point. Is there any precedence of TS"O"s playing doctor and deciding that an individual is too sick to fly?

+1 - It's ironic that OP posts juvenile hate stuff about TSA and ignores the fact that by flying sick he is infecting fellow pax who've done nothing wrong beyond having the misfortune of booking the flight.

It would be a public service for the TSA Officer to report his/her observations to the air carrier and let the carrier offload the pax under its medical authority.

how are your expenses and inconvenience outweigh mine or any concern of mine? The time of your Mrs is more important than my time?

If anyone - TSA, LEO, Airline agent or me as a passenger feels that you are a danger to others (there are more ways than one) and call CBP quarantine/ambulance - that is the right thing to do.
And while you are being examined for your fake sickness - one more seat will be available to a standby person.

I've been through a few countries where medical teams use infrared cameras to scan all passengers for fever. While I've never seen that in the US, it certainly could happen here.

Furthermore, traveling while sick exposes others to whatever it is you have. As a matter of public health, you could be detained, quarantined, fined, etc. The decent and polite thing to do (not to mention the smart thing to do for yourself) is to NOT travel with a high fever. I don't want t:eek: get sick, and neither does anyone else.

Many contagious people may not even show any symptoms yet.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm

Many people who have a fever may not be contagious - such as my bout of food poisoning several years ago.

Allowing anyone to play doctor and send people off for examination is just going to lead to a lot of inconvienced people while not stopping the spread of disease, especially since the terminal, escalator hand rails, door knobs, etc. are already contaminated. Now if you are vomiting in the jetway the airline has every right to deny you boarding. Only saw that once (leaving Vegas, so probably self inflicted).

In general I would never voluntarily reveal any medical or other personal information to TSA.

E.g., there are repeated tales of TSA being extra thorough/intensive in screening areas of the body that passengers reported as sensitive due to medical conditions, recent treatment, recent wounds, etc., resulting in substantial pain. Therefore the correct answer to "do you have any sensitive areas?" is always "no," regardless of what sensitive areas you might have.

I can't think of obvious ways for a TSO to abuse you based on looking/acting sick, other than the already mentioned way-out-of-scope playing doctor, but I still don't think it's a good idea.

Really? How do you know you weren't contagious? Do you know which specific pathogen caused your illness? Are you aware that norovirus is HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS, and that it is by far the most common foodborne pathogen? Norovirus is not only transmitted through food. You can also get it through contact with contaminated surfaces or infected persons. Fever is one of the symptoms. You may continue to be contagious for up to two weeks after gastrointestinal symptoms have subsided.

People with fevers should not be in public unless a medical doctor has determined it to be due to a non-contagious condition. That's why schools require children to be kept home for a fever as mild as 100 degrees.


Wow. I really hope I've misunderstood your point.

Are you asserting that it's OK for you to knowingly put others at risk of infection (by traveling when you're sick) because they're at already at risk of being infected by people who do not know they're contagious? Seriously?

So sick people don't have the right to go home? If I get to a remote destination, then come down with something, I can't go home?

I think they may want us to rent a car and drive home.

Or, go to a hospital.

Or, wait it out.

Or something.

I have traveled ill on two occasions. In both cases, I self-medicated to reduce all symptoms to a minimum (no sneezing or coughing) made prodigious use of hand sanitizers, and avoided as much direct personal contact as possible. I took a window seat and scrunched myself into a miserable ball next to the window. I slept most of the time.

It was something I did not want to do.

A few years ago, I was on a flight from JFK to CDG (on AA). A woman flying with her son and husband wanted to get more leg room (a bulkhead seat), feigned some illness (hoping it would work). Even though she confessed to her deception, paramedics were called. They were going to eject her from the plane, but over an hour after the original departure time, she was let back on the plane (to a round of "boos" from the pax as she passed them on the way to her original seat).
So if this "trivial" incident was not taken lightly, a real illness (hopefully) will be treated in a very serious way.