Ebola and Security: on entering the USA

I found this blog article by Tim Unwin on Ebola and Security quite interesting. Read on...

I had a weird experience on arriving at Los Angeles Airport yesterday. For the first time ever, there was almost no queue as I approached the border guards for passport checking. However, I did notice that they were wearing bright blue gloves. My mind then starting putting two and two together, and I realised that the US was starting to put into practice border checks for people with possible Ebola entering the country. As I read the press this morning, I note increasing anxiety across the more developed countries of the world, especially here in the USA as it is reported that “A Texan health worker who treated Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan before he died is also infected with the virus, according to a preliminary test”.

However, as I lent forward to put my fingers on the fingerprint reader I realise just how ridiculous this is. If someone with Ebola had a cut finger, or was sweating profusely in the queue before me, and I put my fingers where his or hers had been, what was the chance that I too could catch Ebola? It was probably quite high. So, by forcing me to have my finger prints checked, the US government could have forced me to catch Ebola, all in the name of border security. I shared my reflections with the unusually pleasant official checking my passport, and he expressed real shock and worry, pointing out that no-one had raised this previously!

This seems to raise really interesting questions about the use of digital technologies for border security! An answer, of course, is for any health checks to be done before people pass through passport security checks, but is this actually going to happen, and what delays could it generate at international airports?

url: http://unwin.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/ebola-and-security-on-entering-the-usa/

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