The CDC may have trouble tracing some U.S. airline passengers who shared a flight with someone infected with coronavirus
, a situation that could have been avoided had the federal government created a plan for sharing passenger data during an emergency like a disease outbreak — and now the agency and airlines are squabbling about who's at fault and how to fix the problem.
“Policy should be developed from knowledgeable people at FAA or DOT so we can begin to better track passengers,” DeFazio added. But he noted later that he expected "they ought to able to figure this out.", the CDC is increasingly concerned about getting the information it needs for coronavirus contact tracing, amid incomplete information provided by airlines and booking agents with a lag of as much as two weeks.
"Those folks send us the bare minimum of information,” said Sharon Pinkerton, a senior vice president at U.S. airline lobby group Airlines for America. “They send us your name, your sex, and your birthdate. That’s what’s required for Secure Flight," a TSA security program. Those contact information data points are "something that they can collect from the passenger at check-in or at the gate," said TTA President Steve Shur. "We just think that's the only practical solution here — is to do it in that way, at that time."
Further, Pinkerton said she didn’t agree with the notion that DOT has failed to prepare for outbreaks.
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