US: Airlines refused to collect passenger data that could aid coronavirus fight

For 15 years, the US government has been pressing airlines to prepare for a possible pandemic by collecting passengers’ contact information so that public-health authorities could track down people exposed to a contagious virus. The airlines have repeatedly refused, even this month as the coronavirus proliferated across the US. Now the country is paying a price. As the coronavirus spread into the US this year, the federal government was not able to get in touch with or monitor airline passengers who might have been exposed to the disease or were carrying it into new communities. Officials at the CDC have spent years warning airlines that they have complete contact information for only about half of their passengers, those who book flights directly through the airlines as opposed to third-party ticketing websites like Travelocity. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, for example, the scarcity of contact information handicapped the CDC as it tried to reach Americans who might have been exposed to the virus, according to three government officials. But airline executives and lobbyists have protested that it would be expensive and time-consuming for them to start collecting basic information like email addresses and phone numbers for all passengers. The lobbying has worked. Over the past 15 years, the industry has beaten back proposed rules and legislation that would have compelled airlines to collect contact information before passengers board flights. Story has more background.<br/>