Swine Flu: No thermal screening at Hartsfield-Jackson airport
April 27, 2009 at 10:39 am by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsTo slow the spread of deadly swine flu, several airports in Asia and Oceania have begun funneling passengers through thermal scanners to determine if they have a fever.
As of this morning, international passengers arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are not being subjected to any sort of automated scans to detect possible illness.
Tim Sushil of the Atlanta office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says customs agents who interview incoming passengers are trained to spot obvious signs of illness.
“We rely on the judgement of [Customs and Border Protection] officers,” he says. Only when a passenger is showing visible signs of illness, he says, will a customs officer notify Centers For Disease Control personnel at the airport.
Just curious, why can’t we have both machines and judgement?
If it was possible to determine if someone has a fever by simply looking at them, doctors and nurses wouldn’t carry thermometers.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:57 am
eh, it’s probably ’cause no one has thought to buy them.
the asian airports all have them because of sars. i flew into hkg right after the sars outbreak died down and they were still doing it.
makes sense to have ‘em in the case of a global outbreak tho’ huh?