US: TSA casts doubts on effectiveness of passenger temperature checks at airports

Checking temperatures at airports might not be the best way to weed out travellers with Covid-19, the head of the TSA said Tuesday. TSA and other industry officials urged all travellers to wear masks throughout the airport and onboard, but the federal government hasn’t determined if it will perform temperature checks on passengers. “No decision has been made,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “I know in talking to our medical professionals and talking to the Centers for Disease Control is that temperature checks are not a guarantee that passengers who don’t have an elevated temperature also don’t have Covid-19,” Pekoske said. The reverse may also be true, where travellers could have temperatures but not coronavirus. Other issues are what to do with travellers who have elevated temperatures and which government agency would oversee the screenings, he said. Regulators would also have to figure out where to have such screening, ideally at entrances to large public spaces, like departure halls. “But as we all know, there are other opportunities for people to come in closer contact with other passengers,” Pekoske said, using a airport’s rental car site as an example.<br/>