Sheldon Jacobson: TSA must mandate covid-19 vaccines for airport security screeners
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Airport security checkpoints have become the nation’ measuring stick for the state of our war with covid-19 and the Delta variant. The picture is not pretty, and is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Over 8,500 Transportation Security Officers have been infected to-date, with 18 deaths. At the same time, the number of air travelers has surged to over 2 million per day on average since the beginning of July.
The TSA has taken aggressive steps to protect airport security screeners and travelers, with acrylic barriers, face coverings, gloves and face shields. In spite of such precautions, the number of new cases, which had leveled off in June, is now surging.
With 2 million screenings each day across nearly 440 airports nationwide, TSA screening officers are sitting ducks for the Delta variant, both getting infected and transmitting the virus.
Airports reporting a large number of cases include MIA, LAX and JFK, all with over 400 cases each and new infections over the past two weeks. Rounding out the top 10 airports are EWR, ORD, FLL, MCO, DFW, LAS and ATL.
The two busiest airports in the nation, ORD (Chicago O’Hare) and ATL (Atlanta), have both gone over six months without a new case, with their last reported cases back in January. Will this clean record continue? Is there a lesson to be learned?
The good news is that with under 400 active cases, most of the infected TSA screeners have recovered. The bad news is that number of new infections among TSA officer is on the rise.
Given the higher level of transmission of the Delta variant, the TSA will be challenged to keep screeners infection-free in the coming weeks. Their best hope to protect them are the vaccines.
The percentage of airport screeners that have been vaccinated has not been publicly reported. However, when the vaccines first became available in 2021, TSA employees were urged to be vaccinated as soon as they became eligible. Now with ample vaccine supplies available, every TSA screener who wishes to be vaccinated has likely already been vaccinated.
In the interest of public safety, as well as keeping the air system open for business, the TSA can require every TSA screener who interacts with travelers at airport security checkpoints be vaccinated. This can be accomplished by how roles are assigned.
Vaccinated TSA officers can be stationed at checkpoints that have high interactions with travelers, while those not vaccinated can be assigned to behind-the-scene roles like screening checked baggage. Exposing unvaccinated screeners by placing them in high passenger traffic roles is a formula for disaster.
This is consistent with President Biden’s recent requirement on disclosing vaccination status for federal employees.
Would this be enough?
Health care systems are now mandating vaccination for their medical staff, since such people are in close physical proximity with people when delivering care. Airport security checkpoints also draw large numbers of people together in close physical proximity. Face coverings are helpful, but they represent just one layer of protection in such environments. When medical systems that take care of people are requiring vaccination, then the TSA, which also takes care of people, should take notice and do the same.
The next two months will be particularly challenging at airport security checkpoints. With 2 million-plus travelers flying almost every day, summer travel in full gear, and college students getting ready to return to campuses in August, a perfect storm is brewing that will lead to a surge in new infections that are likely to reach 100 TSA screeners per day.
TSA screeners deserve the best protection available, and that protection today is covid-19 vaccines.
Sheldon Jacobson is a Founder Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.