Maryn McKenna

Journalist and Author

Holiday Travel? Get Vaccinated First, or Bring Home Something Unexpected

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Angelo DeSantis (CC), Flickr

Angelo DeSantis (CC), Flickr

Happy holidays, constant readers. If you’re like many people, you may be preparing to take a trip, maybe for a break from winter, maybe just to see family. As you’re getting ready, making sure to decant the toiletries and pack the presents unwrapped, here’s one thing not to forget: your vaccinations.

Really, this is important. Last January, according to an account recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, four unvaccinated people were infected with measles by a never-found fifth person during a single 4-hour window at an airport gate somewhere in the US.

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US Will Screen Air Passengers for Signs of Ebola. Will It Work?

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Masked customs officers look on in a screening area for international passengers from United flight 998 from Brussels at Newark airport in Newark, N.J., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014. New Jersey health officials say Ebola has been ruled out as the cause of illness for a man who became sick on a flight from Brussels to the United States.

Masked customs officers look on in a screening area for international passengers from United flight 998 from Brussels at Newark airport in Newark, N.J., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014. New Jersey health officials say Ebola has been ruled out as the cause of illness for a man who became sick on a flight from Brussels to the United States. Viorel Florescu / AP Photo / Northjersey.com

If you’ve been following the Ebola story, you may have noticed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a move yesterday to try to keep the disease off US soil. At the five US airports that receive most passengers from the three countries where Ebola is circulating, passengers will be singled out on the basis of their travel records; interviewed by means of a questionnaire; and have their temperature taken, to see if they have a fever.

It’s the first attempt to control Ebola at the US border, announced, probably coincidentally, on the same day as the death of the only Ebola patient to make it into the US thus far. Political pressure for the CDC to do something was growing, and some visible step was necessary. But in the public health world, I am hearing some doubt whether it will work. Here are some reasons why.
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