I’m not meaning to be controversial here, but I’m genuinely curious if there’s something I’m missing…
In this post:
Airlines still collect contact tracing for US-bound flights
In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced a requirement for international travelers on flights to the United States to provide contact tracing information prior to travel.
Specifically, within 72 hours of departure, and prior to being able to check-in, passengers have to provide their contact information for where they’ll be in the United States upon arrival, including an address, phone number, etc.
Airlines need to keep this information on file for 30 days, and transmit the information to the CDC upon request. As it’s described, “the purpose of collecting this information is to identify and locate passengers who may have been exposed to a person with a communicable disease for public health follow-up.”
At the start of the pandemic, I could see the value in this, in theory. I mean, the US was never exactly great about contact tracing (to put it mildly), but coronavirus was treated as a public health emergency, so it wasn’t unreasonable to think that information could be helpful.
However, it has now been well over four years since the pandemic started, and coronavirus is no longer being treated as an emergency in the country. I mean, federal funding for coronavirus vaccines and tests has largely ended. Yet every single time someone flies to the United States, they need to provide this contact tracing information.
I don’t want to suggest that filling out this contact tracing thing is the most complicated thing in the world — it’s not, and it takes maybe a minute. But when you think of how many tens of millions of travelers enter the United States by air every year, that translates to a lot of wasted time.
Is this policy intentionally still in place?
To me this raises the question of whether the CDC has this policy in place because it actively thinks there’s value in this, or just because someone forgot to reverse this policy?
- Is the logic that in the event that another major pandemic emerges, at least the CDC will already be requesting information?
- The US did a lousy job doing contact tracing the first time around, so why would it be different the next time around?
- The countries that actually did contact tracing well during the pandemic don’t have such contact tracing requirements anymore, so does the CDC think those countries are doing things wrong and the US is doing things right?
Is there something I’m missing? Let me emphasize that I’m asking this question as someone who still often masks while flying, and who has his fair share of “microchips.” 😉 So I’m not coming at this with any anti-CDC bias, but rather I’m just coming at this in terms of what I view as common sense.
If I had to guess, on some level I think this is one of those policies that remains in please due to how risk averse people are, and the “better safe than sorry” philosophy. No one is ever going to get yelled at because they kept such a requirement in place, while you don’t want to be the person who eliminates this, only to think it’s valuable information to have in the future.
Bottom line
The CDC continues to require that airlines request contact tracing information from US-bound air travelers within 72 hours of travel. I just can’t make sense of this anymore. If I’m missing something, I’d love to be educated. If I’m not missing anything, then view this as a gentle nudge for the CDC to maybe reconsider this policy.
What’s your take on the CDC’s contact tracing requirement for international flights? Anything I’m missing?
....all the same reasons why water is still banned and we take our shoes off at TSA
Its easy to bring in new laws, very difficult to get rid of them
I'm a fan of keeping this in place. Who knows what kind of infectious disease will pop up in the future and we will already have contact tracing in place.
You are missing that there a many other transmittable diseases, like Measles, Tuberculosis, mpox, dengue fever, legionnaires, etc.
Dengue is mosquito-borne.
Obviously it's just another intrusive information-collecting exercise by the US government that violates citizens' privacy and security. Once in place, it's difficult to get the politicians and government employees with no moral compass to give it up. The slippery slope.
"This order will cease to be in effect on the earlier of (1) the date that is two incubation periods after the last known case of COVID-19, or (2) when the Secretary determines that there is no longer a need for the interim final rule (IFR) published in the Federal Register on February 7, 2020."
So in other words... the order considers Zero Covid, which is impossible, to be a realistic possibility.
Ben - you told us you still wear a mask…so I guess?
The policy should really be changed to within X hours of CDC mandate, airlines must have the ability to start collecting this information again. So that the airlines keep the IT backend in place and the traveling public isn't needlessly bothered.
42 CFR 71.4 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/71.4).
Contact tracing was proposed back in 2005 but was not adopted. The rules got finalized around 2016/2017 after the largest outbreak of Ebola, and with MERS and even measles making a fuss at that time.
The 2016 proposed rule making (which got finalized) noted that the rule was codifying what CDC had already been doing in practice where they already had authority to issue an order to airlines for certain information...
42 CFR 71.4 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/71.4).
Contact tracing was proposed back in 2005 but was not adopted. The rules got finalized around 2016/2017 after the largest outbreak of Ebola, and with MERS and even measles making a fuss at that time.
The 2016 proposed rule making (which got finalized) noted that the rule was codifying what CDC had already been doing in practice where they already had authority to issue an order to airlines for certain information regarding passengers. CDC noted that it was also going to coordinate with DHS/CBP on using data they collect as well.
Section VI(B)(3) of the notice of proposed rule making discusses the data collection portion. For the discussion of the history of the rule making, see Section III(B) of the 2016 notice of proposed rule making at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/08/15/2016-18103/control-of-communicable-diseases
Long time listener, first time caller!
Came here to say this - contact tracing has been around for a long time, it has much more to do than with covid, and it happens in the background of many countries, not just the US.
Perhaps it's still in place not just for COVID-19, but for other diseases. If your seatmate on a flight becomes ill a few days after landing with a serious disease they got prior to the flight, then the CDC does contact trace to find out all of the people who were exposed and may potentially have the virus to contain it. This has been the case for a long time.
When a family member of...
Perhaps it's still in place not just for COVID-19, but for other diseases. If your seatmate on a flight becomes ill a few days after landing with a serious disease they got prior to the flight, then the CDC does contact trace to find out all of the people who were exposed and may potentially have the virus to contain it. This has been the case for a long time.
When a family member of mine moved to the US in 2000, their seatmate eventually came down with a serious contagious disease (I can't remember exactly what it was). My family member got a call from the CDC a few days later, telling them they may have been exposed on that flight and to stay home and quarantine and watch for symptoms.
This information is also really valuable in case a serious mutation of COVID-19 comes along. I also noticed this info requirement earlier this week when flying back to the US.
As a healthcare professional, I see the value in this. Yes, it's an extra step, but it doesn't take long. And if that info was needed, already having it on file could save valuable time in preventing a disease from spreading.
Totally agree. Complete waste of time but a prime display of bureaucracy at its finest
I'm surprised at this too (also as someone who masks up and gets my microchips). I suppose it's worthwhile if they're actually still getting actionable reports and then relaying the contact info in time for it to be useful to pax, but if I sorta doubt that's the case. And if it's in fact not the case, then this is just bureaucratic data hoarding, should be shut down.
It was never necessary in the first place, and it certainly isn't necessary now.
Just one of the many remnants of this Scamdemic. Remember the signs to keep 6-feet of distance? Those useless signs still plague the floors of many establishments. Heck, we can’t even admit that the shots don’t work, but millions keep taking them. The gullibility of the populace is an embarrassment.
Even more embarrassing are the people who dismiss them because they believe nonsense conspiracy theories.
Fake news. Covid vaccines work. 20 million lives saved, much more than double number who died in the Holocaust.
With that in mind, Derek, you must be upset that Pfizer intentionally changed the endpoints of the original vaccine trial so that it wouldn't be approved prior to the election, which would have given Trump credit. Imagine how many people died needlessly because the vaccine was delayed by those several weeks. It should also upset you that the vaccine was distributed as 2 doses to young healthy medical workers instead of 1 dose to all...
With that in mind, Derek, you must be upset that Pfizer intentionally changed the endpoints of the original vaccine trial so that it wouldn't be approved prior to the election, which would have given Trump credit. Imagine how many people died needlessly because the vaccine was delayed by those several weeks. It should also upset you that the vaccine was distributed as 2 doses to young healthy medical workers instead of 1 dose to all the old / sick people - again, this lead to many needless deaths.
Did you forget to take your medicine today? Stop this nonsense. And Ben, why do you allow nonsense in your website?