US to require COVID Testing for International Flyers

wintersun wrote:

Does no one realize that the death toll from Covid per capita is 1000 times higher in the United States than in countries like Taiwan or South Korea or Vietnam or New Zealand?

I think most of us realize it. We're all at odds over what needs to be done. And, we're at odds over a lot of things these days.

Getting us to all row-in-the-same-direction seems harder than ever these days.

We are allowing infected people to fly from one part of the country with no testing and that has been the problem from day one. States like Arizona that do nothing to restrict movement and have bars open are spreading the infection across the country. Few countries want Americans coming in regardless with our notable lack of healthy behavior and flagrant disregard for the law or heath regulations.

Does not one realize that the death toll from Covid per capita is 1000 times higher in the United States than in countries like Taiwan or South Korea or Vietnam or New Zealand?

I did find the cdc regulation. The test has to be in the 3 days before boarding.

Talleyho69 wrote:
I have wondered about testing in any form for any purpose for about the same reason.

Realize that I read the Los Angeles Times daily, but don't have a television so don't watch the news.

If I were to have a test today that came out negative and made me "safe" to board an airplane or whatever, what would keep me from being exposed to Covid on my way out of the testing site and be contagious in a few days???

I must be missing something here.

Again, this is like masks...neither will end the pandemic. They are both intended to slow it down (at least that's the only realistic thing it can do).

If it screens out 80-90% of the infected, that's a big reduction in moving the virus around.

PS: this doesn't eliminate the "theater" aspect. Politicians feel obliged to do something...anything...Right now, very few Americans are entering the US by plane. This is something they can "do" that impacts almost no constituents.

I have wondered about testing in any form for any purpose for about the same reason.

Realize that I read the Los Angeles Times daily, but don't have a television so don't watch the news.

If I were to have a test today that came out negative and made me "safe" to board an airplane or whatever, what would keep me from being exposed to Covid on my way out of the testing site and be contagious in a few days???

I must be missing something here.

I do not understand how the 3 day rule will work. If you go for a test 3 days before your flight the results may not be ready. Same for 2 days before flight
If you have the test 4 days before the flight it will be outdated. The rule should be a max of 3 days from when you received the results. Canada will only accept the nasal swab. No rapid tests. The USA has not published the full document describing the regulations .

Sjm9911 wrote:

wolfe10 wrote:

Sjm9911 wrote:
It says you need to test negative 3 days before flying, so you would not be able to fly on shorter notice.

First, a "clicky": https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/01/12/covid-test-required-international-passengers-flying-into-us/6640424002/

Wonder if that is WITHIN 3 days, rather than 3 days prior to flight? That would make more sense.

Tbh, none of it makes a ton of sense. The rapid tests are highly unreliable, to the point that they tell you to take a reguler test if you get a positive covid 19 result. The other test takes a day or two to process. And you can get covid after you take the tests. Unfortunately, people dont stay home when they are supost to, if they did that we wouldn't need to be regulated to death by these rules. Will it help, maybe. In that it will discourage sick people. So it may help a bit.

No tests aren't 100% but they don't need to be 100% to significantly reduce the number of infected individuals entering the country.

Let's say the test is only 80% accurate and 5% of the local population is catching it per 3 day period. That would mean roughly 75% of cases are caught before they get on the airplane. Reality is 5% is not catching it every 3 days or we would have hit herd immunity a few months back. You can play with the exact percentages but it will slow transmission across borders.

Keep in mind, for most countries, there are already home grown transmission so the idea is to slow it down, not stop every last case.

It's only isolated countries (typically islands) that have no cases where an attempt to hit 100% exclusion is useful.

wolfe10 wrote:

Sjm9911 wrote:
It says you need to test negative 3 days before flying, so you would not be able to fly on shorter notice.

First, a "clicky": https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/01/12/covid-test-required-international-passengers-flying-into-us/6640424002/

Wonder if that is WITHIN 3 days, rather than 3 days prior to flight? That would make more sense.

Tbh, none of it makes a ton of sense. The rapid tests are highly unreliable, to the point that they tell you to take a reguler test if you get a positive covid 19 result. The other test takes a day or two to process. And you can get covid after you take the tests. Unfortunately, people dont stay home when they are supost to, if they did that we wouldn't need to be regulated to death by these rules. Will it help, maybe. In that it will discourage sick people. So it may help a bit.

Talleyho69 wrote:
My curiosity question is in regards to those who have paid for air evacuation services.

IF you test positive for Covid, you are not supposed to be allowed on a plane to the US or Canada after certain dates.

So, what about your evacuation service that you paid for? Just stirring the pot here.

Unless you booked and paid over a year ago...you probably are not covered.

Most of the travel insurance companies eliminated anything covid related as a coverable event back in the spring for new policies.

Alternatively, they could site the new rule and send you to a hospital in your local destination...force major and all that.

My wife is having a heck of a time getting covid related claims for her clients paid. They won't admit it but travel insurance companies have no money coming in and huge numbers of claims way beyond what is normal. They are doing everything they can not to go belly up and claims are one of their biggest expenses.

Sjm9911 wrote:
It says you need to test negative 3 days before flying, so you would not be able to fly on shorter notice.

First, a "clicky": https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/01/12/covid-test-required-international-passengers-flying-into-us/6640424002/

Wonder if that is WITHIN 3 days, rather than 3 days prior to flight? That would make more sense.