<\/a><\/p>\nFor some international travelers, in-airport tests have already become a norm as they travel between different countries. Airports in the US, including Tampa International Airport and Oakland Airport, are beginning to open Covid-19 testing sites of their own, too, and more are set to join. <\/p>\n
Even XpresSpa, a firm that normally provides in-terminal spa treatments for travelers, announced this month that, in Newark Airport and JFK, it will offer Covid-19 tests, which cost between $75 and $200 depending on the test or tests you get. Travelers can walk in or make scheduled appointments that take place in the airports\u2019 terminals. The company has also said it\u2019s in conversation with \u201chealth passport apps\u201d and looking into creating so-called air bridges between specific cities. The company\u2019s CEO, Doug Satzman, told Recode that, in the future, he even imagines XpresSpa helping with vaccinations for Covid-19 or other illnesses. <\/p>\n
The Transportation Security Administration has also made some changes. Instead of a human officer confirming the validity of someone\u2019s identification card, TSA is now piloting a self-service checkpoint using a biometrics-based algorithm designed to confirm that a live photo of a person matches their ID. This builds on the agency\u2019s previous pre-pandemic tests of facial recognition technology, which has also worried privacy experts over potential racial bias, inaccuracy, and surveillance applications. <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Clear, a company that\u2019s best known for allowing people to bypass TSA screening and head straight toward their carry-on baggage inspection. In the pandemic, Clear has started to offer Health Pass, a biometric-based way of tracking peoples\u2019 health status that was used, notably, to help conduct the National Hockey League playoffs in Canada. (In the NHL case, at least, there have been no recent confirmed Covid-19 cases stemming from the bubble the league created.) Despite the concerns of privacy experts and some members of Congress, Clear has now announced that it will integrate Covid-19 test lab results from LabCorp and Quest into Health Pass.<\/p>\n
Clear told Recode that it\u2019s in discussion with airlines and airports about integrating Health Pass into existing security screening processes for the general public. Clear employees are already using the health-based version of the tech at the airport; United, one of the company\u2019s partners, told Recode that it might support Clear\u2019s plans for Covid-19 testing. Amid the pandemic, Clear has taken the opportunity to expand its business model, transitioning from a service that made flying more hassle-free to a business built around confirming peoples\u2019 identities everywhere, as OneZero recently reported. <\/p>\n
But the air travel industry having business opportunities with Covid-19 tests reflects the broader failure of the US approach to the public health crisis, argues Kenneth Goodman, director of the Institute for Bioethics at the University of Miami\u2019s Miller School of Medicine. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe very idea that some people with an extra 200 or 150 \u2014 whatever it costs \u2014 dollars can buy a test is a sad sign of where our country and where the world is,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cThis was not a business opportunity. This was an attempt to try and stop there being too many dead people. And we\u2019ve made a total and complete hash of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Goodman also emphasized that testing negative on a Covid-19 test is by no means an assurance that you haven\u2019t just contracted the illness or that you won\u2019t contract it at the airport or on a plane. <\/p>\n
Air travel Covid-19 tests could be a peek at what\u2019s to come<\/p>\n
Still, these changes highlight the new normal for air travel anxieties. Potter, of the Thrifty Traveler, says that before the pandemic, fliers were concerned about two primary things: the price of a ticket and in-flight services. Now, many in-flight services are gone, and airlines are most concerned with convincing fliers that it\u2019s safe to be aboard. <\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has issued guidance for air travel, estimated last month that close to 11,000 people were exposed to Covid-19 on flights, according to the Washington Post. As the Mayo Clinic notes, airplanes have sophisticated air filtration systems that can limit the spread of the virus, but a few studies have suggested that Covid-19 can be spread not just on flights themselves but also in security lines and airport terminals. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo really boil it down, airlines have focused almost entirely on convincing people to get back on planes, convincing them that it\u2019s safe to do so, and trying to get them on and off the plane and through the airport as fast and as safely as possible,\u201d he told Recode. <\/p>\n
Airlines and airports have made a point of showing off their cleaning procedures, including litanies of electrostatic sprayers, robot cleaners, and questionable fever-detection tech. <\/p>\n
Another move is toward more contactless and biometric technologies. The Australian company Elenium, for instance, has debuted contactless Covid-19 airport kiosks that can hear peoples\u2019 voices and respond to their head movements. These kiosks are now installed in airports in the Middle East, the US, and Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when the Covid crisis dissipates, when there is a vaccine, I think that both the public and business will be sensitive to the impact of future health events, even bad flu seasons,\u201d Elenium CEO Ilya Gutin told Recode in an email. He noted that the company received more leads in the four weeks after announcing its Covid-19-focused kiosk than it had in the past four years. <\/p>\n
As airlines begin incorporating Covid-19 testing, they\u2019re also considering what their plans would look like when a vaccine finally becomes available to the public. McMillan, from United Airlines, told Recode that the company was considering how technology might be able to tie information about whether someone was healthy enough to fly to their boarding passes. \u201cWe see that evolving into vaccination records,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMuch like 9\/11 changed the security process at the airport, this pandemic will change how people travel with health documentation going forward for sure,\u201d McMillan added, echoing what many airline industry experts told Recode earlier this year. <\/p>\n
But Potter is skeptical that people will be flying with the same enthusiasm anytime soon. Even a vaccine, he said, wouldn\u2019t be enough to make flying feel normal again. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really one of the first major industries to feel the pain of this,\u201d he told Recode. \u201cI think it\u2019s probably going to be one of the last to feel the relief, whenever that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Open Sourced<\/em> is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kyle Potter, the editor of the travel deals website Thrifty Traveler, is used to flying a lot. But things haven\u2019t been the same since the pandemic. Back in June, when he flew for the first time since Covid-19 hit the United States, it was an eerie experience. \u201cPretty much everyone just really feels on edge….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}