Screening travelers for symptoms of Covid-19 was ineffective, CDC study says

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Temperature and symptom-based screening programs don't help catch coronavirus cases, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report that took a closer look at the programs used at US airports until mid-September.

In January, the CDC started an enhanced screening program for air passengers arriving from certain countries with widespread transmission of the novel coronavirus.

The goal was to find travelers who were sick and separate them from other passengers, to share information with travelers about self-monitoring and to get their contact information that could be shared with the passenger's local public health department.

The CDC said this was a resource-intensive program that had a low case detection rate. Between January 17 and September 13, the CDC screened more than 766,000 travelers. Nearly 300 met the criteria for public health assessment, 35 were tested for the coronavirus, and nine tested positive. That means the program identified about one case per 85,000 travelers screened, the CDC reported Thursday in the agency's weekly report.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/screening-travelers-for-symptoms-of-covid-19-was-ineffective-cdc-study-says/ar-BB1aXsUO?li=BBnb7Kz

[Doodley]

1. That was obvious, as is testing visitors to public buildings, events, senior living communities, etc

[Ms. Toad]

4. Not terrlibly effective - but particularly when you are dealing with

low-income workers who work with a very vulnerable populatio and whocannot take days off without risking losing their jobs it is essential.

Especially as to nursing homes, no one with symptoms should be working - and self-monioring doesn't work for that population of workers. It's not good enough - but it is better than nothing.

[Doodley]

5. Very true Ms. Toad.

[bamagal62]

2. Well when many are asymptomatic,

Then what do they expect? Even people with covid symptoms, don’t present with fever. When I was ill in March, they would not test me because I never went over 100. You can’t screen travelers with this virus. It doesn’t work. Plus, people can take ibuprofen and lie.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. IMHO the "temperature check" thing is a big joke

They were apparently going by the success of using that as an indicator for SARS but that doesn't really work with this COVID-19 except to maybe catch those who really are symptomatic.

[tikka]

6. Maybe they should have used dogs trained to detect covid-19.