The TSA spreading measels virus?
 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...edName=topNews

Was the above UA passenger, whether or not alarming a WTMD, subjected to an unnecessarily long, up front and personal, TSA grope-fest that made the TSA agents to become even more harmful to the health of passengers in the US than is already the case with the "enhanced" pat-down rub-downs?

... and that other part of DHS, which is CBP, at IAD could only have made matters worse with slower, unnecessarily packed lines there on Sunday afternoons and evenings.

Another reason for the clerks to be changing their gloves after interacting with passenger, or luggage. It's amazing how far a disease could spread. At an international airport (SFO/JFK/ORD), a disease could spread around the world :eek:

SARS anyone??

now, even I despise the TSA but sheeting home blame to them on this is really drawing a long bow...

I was inclined to think the same but then after giving it more thought I became open to a different conclusion than my initial inclination. Amongst the reasons for second-guessing: the TSA requires longer, more up-close contact than is minimally necessary to be as (in)effective for security purposes as is currently the situation at airports, thus increasing the risk for disease communication via the TSA; and the DHS/TSA keeps people in lines at airports longer than is minimally necessary for the same, thus increasing the risk for disease communication, via airborne transmission or otherwise.

^^

What is your source that the TSA was involved in the spread of measles? I went through security yesterday and was never touched by a TSA person. Walk through the metal detector, and off I go. Most people who are screened have no contact with the TSA other than they touch your ID and boarding pass.

It's nice to blame the TSA for everything, but it's a bit over the top to assume they are spreading a virus so far there is no indication of an outbreak at all (granted it's still too early to know, but considering most people in the US have either had it or were vaccinated against it, there's little chance of an outbreak).

Measles is not spread through skin contact, you can't get it because somebody touches an infected person and touches the next person. It is transmitted through droplets from the nose, throat and mouth, and they can stay in a room for hours after the person coughs or sneezes. If there is an outbreak, it's far more likely it was to those sitting around them at the gate or on the plane when they coughed or sneezed then it was from the TSA screening.

The question I have is how long the germ lives outside the human body. The only place the TSA would have contacted the passenger is IAD, but then depending on how many others they touched next and how long the germ can survive on human skin or luggage it could have gone to all points UA goes from IAD.

I still think it's a stretch far enough to pull a muscle. Any crowded public venue carries the risk of facilitating the transmission of disease, especially a disease which is contagious before the carrier exhibits signs of infection.


~~ Irish

Will TSA use this outbreak as an excuse to randomly swab hands as they did during the swine flu outbreak? I recall several posters telling us of screeners asking to swab their hands to test for H1N1.

If I read the story right, they would not have been screened at IAD, it sounds like they landed at IAD, stayed there a few days (so they would have left the airport) and checked into BWI two days later. Their only interaction with the TSA would be at BWI if my assumption is correct.

Authorities said Saturday that a New Mexico woman later confirmed to have measles arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport late in the afternoon of Feb. 20. Two days later, the measles-infected traveler departed from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport near Baltimore on an evening flight to Denver, Colo., and then on to Albuquerque, N.M.

She was a 27year old US resident and not vaccinated, it's been strangely quite from the antivaccination groups the last few days.

The same source as your question.

For a virus to spread, there need not (yet) be an indication of an outbreak.

Whether or not the TSA is spreading measles, there is no reason to doubt that the TSA is contributing way more to the spread of viruses by way of its selection of procedures than would otherwise be the case if the TSA were to behave like airport security in most parts of the world.

While outbreaks of measles are usually the result of airborne transmission, physical contact of some sorts could be involved in some circumstances of the virus transmission too.

The prime candidates for immediate exposure to such a virus are indeed those whom you mention, yet the TSA employees handling passenger boarding passes and IDs and doing "enhanced" pat-down gropes are prime candidates for being force multiplier vehicles of communicable diseases as they have more time in closer face to face proximity with many more passengers than any given passenger does with most people on the flight. Hopefully those TSA employees have been MMRd before this month and none avoided the vaccine (whether for religious reasons like the UA passenger or otherwise).

Cutting out the TSA's boarding pass-ID checks and enhanced pat-down gropes would actually reduce the risk of the TSA spreading communicable diseases and be better off for the well being of passengers.

Some news reports have indeed said she had a stopover in the DC area where she arrived into IAD from LHR and flew out of BWI to DEN and then onward. Those reports are accurate.

At IAD, DHS/CBP. At BWI, DHS/TSA. Close enough in both places for airborne transmission between DHS employees and the infected/infectious UA passenger.