The article "Loopholes in 'Do Not Board' List Let Infected Travelers Fly" by Alison Young talks about the news on people traveling on planes with infectious disease. It explains that recently, people with infectious diseases that were on the No Board List had made it on the flights. Since January of 2010, nine people on the list had tried to board flights, and six were stopped successfully. Three, on the other hand, were allowed on the flight in a sort of "loopho
le" causing lots of problems within the air community. The reason they made the list was to insure the safety of the people flying as well as to stop the spread of infectious disease to other parts of the world. Since this incident, air security has been checking the list more frequently and making sure the list does not prove to be faulty again. Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the public health watchdog group Trust for America's Health was very disappointed on the subject and explained: ""We worry a lot about some man-made terrorist attack; but nature-made terror attacks can be just as deadly and can come in the form of an infectious disease".
I found this article very interesting and related a lot to the class. For one, it shows just how serious infectious diseases are; certain people are put into the same category as terrorists if they have an infectious disease and are not allowed the fly. Levi even stated himself that people look past infectious disease because it is not "as deadly" as terrorist attacks, but thi
s is actually false. Infectious diseases can actually be more deadly, and have been more deadly. Like we learned in class, most epidemic diseases occur because of the travel between countries; travel is how The Plague and Cholera got brought to Europe. This fact is no differe
nt today. If people with infectious diseases were allowed to fly on planes, they would not only infect the people on the plane but they could potentially spread it to a whole new country and infect thousands. This
scary thought is exactly why the "No Board List" was created, and it's even scarier that the list seems to fail at times.
Article can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-12-17-rw_donotboard16_ST_N.htm
This was a very interesting article. I do not think people with any sort of infectious disease should be allowed on an airplane with hundreds of other people. I would not like to be on a plane and not been told that there was a specific person who may have a disease that I could be directly harmed by if I were to contract it. It is even more upsetting that the list that was made to keep people with highly infectious disease off airplanes has failed. I think, in my opinion, even if you know nothing about infctious diseases and you were working at an airport and you saw someone clearly sick with a bad looking illness you should stop them and try to see what it is they have. Wether it is a disease or not. It scary how diseases can spread all over the world in a matter of hours.
ReplyDeleteThis was really interesting, Sarah. I had never really thought of people being kept from flying because hey have a disease. But, it does make sense to keep something from spreading across the country - or even the world. It is a good thing to keep sick people off of planes, and even though some people are still able to get on board through loopholes, it is better than every sick person getting on. With this, maybe, there will be a decrease in disease spreading across the country and around the world.
ReplyDeleteSarah this is a very interesting article because it shows how serious infectious diseases need to be handled. I have not heard of this list before, but its makes me very curious of the people that they put on the list and what kind of diseases these passengers are infected with. Every time I am on a plane or even in a type public spot and I hear someone coughing a lot I get worried that I might get sick too. This list is a great way to prevent infectious to disease to not only spread to the US but also to other parts of the world in fear of a pandemic. Hopefully we can figure out ways to prevent the “loopholes” to making flying safer in the means of public health.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what everybody is saying, the thought of people with infectious diseases is very terrifying. As we all saw with H1N1 ailments can cross borders very easily. It came from Mexico and reached New England. Another problem is that not all infectious diseases are easily detected. When we studied smallpox we learned that the incubation period is a week so signs would not be visible before then. What methods could be used to prevent diseases like this from crossing borders?
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting article, and I agree with what others have commented that the list is a really cool preventative measure. I definitely wouldn't want to travel with someone who had an infectious disease, and also wouldn't want people from other countries bringing diseases into the United States. I also thought the comparison of travelling with an infectious disease to terrorism was really interesting. Though travelling with an infectious disease isn't necessarily an intentional act of violence, it can most certainly be as deadly as one and security in airports should be just as focused on preventing infectious people from travelling as they are on preventing terrorists from travelling.
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