kmersh

I saw the thing about Fauci and I rolled my eyes, I try and give those working in Public Health some amount of leeway because it has got to be a difficult job.

With that said, I was talking with a neighbor of mine who is an Infectious Disease Doc and he was saying that the INTL testing requirement never really made much sense to him as the virus is here and even testing cannot stop someone who might become sick in the future from bringing it here (or any country).

Another neighbor recently traveled INTL and she said she was worried about testing positive even possibly due to a false positive, she mentioned her concern to the person at the hotel who was going to administer the test and apparently the man replied since I started working here over a year ago I have not see a positive yet with a wink.

atsak

I am wondering if anyone has experience using the 90 day recovered from COVID approach specifically as opposed to getting an antigen test. I have a letter from my doctor advising I'm recovered and of course the positive PCR test result from earlier this month. I have to travel to the States on the 26th (well past the 10 or 11 days or whatever it is now), but I may as well avoid the hassle of a test if that sounds like it should be enough. The letter doesn't say "cleared to travel" in those words, it just says recovered with no symptoms. I test negative on Antigen tests anyway now, but no point in incurring the hassle or expense unnecessarily. How closely did the airlines check the letter?

Ruth4325

Slightly random question - I�m taking my daughter on a surprise trip to the US soon - when doing the supervised covid fit to fly test do they ask your destination or is it it displayed anywhere on screen? (She currently thinks she is going to London).

nk15

The administration keeps what is practical, such as testing on international return travel. Even small things help a little. Domestic travel cannot be regulated [mod edit]� But even for domestic travel CDC is clear, do NOT travel if you are positive. There is no requirement for frequent tests, but if you do know it, or suspect it, self-test and avoid travel if positive. It is not rocket science. Masks would have helped on flights, but [mod edit] � judges took them down, so that's that.

nk15

No, it doesn't for BinaxNOW. You just choose reason for test "travel".

kmersh

[Moderator redaction of content off-topic for this Travel forum thread.]
With regards to the testing requirement, it maybe practical in that it is not difficult to obtain a test, but I am not sure that it is practical in preventing the spread of the virus within the USA. My neighbor who I referenced upthread is an Infectious Disease Doc has said a number of times now that in his opinion the testing requirement does not accomplish the goal of preventing the introduction of the virus nor its variants into the USA for many reasons, not the least of which the rapid tests supervised over the internet can be less sensitive and not catch a person who might be sick in the following days but not at that snapshot in time as an example.

He said short of preventing any INTL travel there is little one can do to stop a contagious virus, that is just the reality in his opinion.

DeepUnderground

That's the root of all of this problem. A test 24 hours before travel is NOT PRACTICAL l in a lot of the world. I have to book my flights differently to allow a special stop just for testing. I would complain a lot less if it went back to 72 or even 48 hours. But really, it's time to just drop it. The justification to change to 24 hours was based around "learning more about omicron"

Smiley90

What? People routinely test for HIV despite being asymptomatic, and it's made the spread MUCH more limited. It's a huge success. What nonsense blog did you read that one on? There are numerous other examples of diseases we routinely test for despite people being asymptomatic. Heck, some things we routinely TREAT people for despite being asymptomatic, just when they "might" have gotten exposed (incl, again, HIV or Rabies).

One thing about the pre-departure testing is that we probably got "lucky" that Omicron isn't more deadly. If we didn't have testing in place and a less transmissible but more deadly variant emerges, wouldn't you want someone positive to not be on the plane? Yeah hindsight is always 20/20 and if a more deadly variant doesn't emerge we're lucky, but that doesn't mean precaution was a terrible idea. Just because a risk DOESN'T materialize doesn't mean it didn't exist.

​​​​​

js1993

Which is funny � when Trump stopped international travel from the earliest Covid hotspots, these same people were screaming about �freedom.�

kmersh

In fairness, that is a very political view. My neighbor meant all INTL, not just from certain countries.

Outright, no in and out, nothing which is impractical.

js1993

lol

The average American has likely been tested more times for Covid in a week than he has for HIV in his lifetime. Let's be serious here.

We got lucky? How did Omicron travel 8,000 miles from South Africa to the U.S. in a matter of days despite pre-flight testing and both vax and mask mandates? Did someone ship it over here in vials?

nk15

Moving to 48 hours is not unreasonable, especially given the difficulty obtaining tests in some countries. However, given all the tele-tests that are freely available, it should not be a big concern.

What is concerning, for society as a whole, is that part of the population lives in a conspiracy theory world, divorced from reality....

js1993

Physician, heal thyself.

Today is Day 790 of "just two weeks to slow the spread."

Hate to break it to you, but one more month of masks on planes and a fourth jab aren't going to be the end of Covid.

nk15

For me, most of the value of the return test is protecting the people on those international inbound flights, and somewhat less about importing cases and variants (although that also helps a little)... And it does not matter if it is inconsistent with domestic flights, as I said, every little thing helps.

l etoile

After numerous deletions for rules violations, the thread has been reopened. Please stick to posting within the rules so these threads can stay open and helpful. If you see a problem post, please don�t engage, but report it.

regards,

l etoile
forum mod