No foul play. No ill intentions. But a fine display of coordination by health and law enforcement officials deserves great praise after a mother and her COVID-19-positive son were stopped from boarding a flight to Puerto Rico.
Police Stop Family From Boarding Flight After Boy Tests Positive For COVID-19
A mother and her 9-year-old son planned a trip to Puerto Rico over Thanksgiving. The day before their departure, they took a COVID-19 test. While still waiting for their results, they checked into their flight from Baltimore (which narrows the choices to Southwest Airlines or Spirit Airlines) then headed to the airport. Their flight was scheduled to depart just after 4:00pm (which seems to narrow it down further to Southwest Airlines).
Meanwhile, their tests came back..and the boy tested positive. At 3:00pm, Wicomico County Health Department notified Maryland State Police of the positive result, noting the two were scheduled to fly to San Juan in about an hour.
The State Police immediately sprang into action, notifying the Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA) Police of the situation and later forwarding an isolation and quarantine order from health officials. The MTA Police, which handle policing in Maryland airports including Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, attempted to track down the couple.
45 minutes later, less than a half hour before scheduled takeoff, the MTA Police found the mother and her son, just before they boarded. They were sent home and instructed to isolate.
So What?
Unlike the couple who deliberately tried to board a flight to Hawaii knowing they had tested positive for COVID-19, the mother and son appear to be innocent here. There’s no indication they ignored phone calls or emails and attempted to fly anyway.
But whether they were innocent or not is not the point of this story. Instead, I’m impressed that three agencies were able to coordinate so quickly and stop these two from boarding a flight. Did it ever dawn on anyone to call Southwest Airlines?
CONCLUSION
I’d like to think that with proper face coverings, the two would have been a limited threat onboard. Still, no one should be flying if they have recently tested positive for COVID-19. The coordination between agencies demonstrates what is possible when we work together, even in the divided states of America…
image: BWI Airport
I’m sure the families of the shooting and stabbing victims they sped past on the way to the airport can take solace in the fact that the real threat to public safety was dealt with.
The airport police deal with shooting and stabbing victims?
MTA Police likely have their hands full with actual crime most of the time.
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/10/08/baltimore-bus-driver-marcus-parks-fatal-shooting-thursday-latest/
I’m not looking to score a cheap ‘gotcha’ here, it really is problematic that law enforcement agencies can now act on a health officer’s (hastily obtained) “legal isolation and quarantine order” to restrict the free movement of people.
Why take the test if they were going to fly before getting the results anyway? Although I think it is correct to not fly if you tested positive that only makes sense if the entire plane was checked and they were all negative. The chances someone inside the plane had the virus is very high which in terms of spreading it to other passengers makes no difference if the boy stayed out.
These people that knowingly fly positive should be booked on terrorism charges.
You don’t need to blow up a plane to be a terrorist.
Also i am happy to report in answer to my plea for help Rudy Giuliani himself agreed to help. I am not sure how far he will help me and if he knows about the dec/15 deadline.
In any case there are people willing to help when you ask for help. So nice!
I love how liberal idiots think thet have moral authority while simultaneously being horrible human beings.
Are you virtue signaling? Are you being a hypocrite? Of course you are.
Does anything i write affect what Giuliani does? Of course not. When trump is an a-hole you guys are like “he says it like it is”. But when we say it like it is we are horrible human beings?
You idiots lost all moral authority. No one gives a rat’s ass of what you white Republican males think. You are all a big fraud. The secret is out and there is nothing you could do to gain any respect back. No wonder you dont even pretend anymore.
Is your post really necessary or you an idiot troll? These posts irritate me. Intelligent responses only, Matthew, please?
Look in the mirror, corrupt Trump supporter
While it may sound extreme, taking a test before stepping onto a plane is actually a logical way to lower the chances of infection on the plane as well as at the destination.
Not sure why there’s such push back during this time of unchecked spread. If you want to travel for fun, then you should be cleared to travel in the first place. There’s too many cases now to have a me first attitude.
Taking a test does absolutely nothing to reduce the chance of infection. Duh.
What reduces the chance of infection is taking a test, and IF THE RESULTS ARE POSITIVE, THEN YOU ISOLATE OR QUARANTINE, AND ABOVE ALL DO NOT TRAVEL. The family in this story ignored all that and just went about their vacation plans.
This is why we have 3000 covid deaths every day now. People are just too stupid or too selfish (often both, they tend to go together) to take common-sense measures to control the pandemic.
This family is not “innocent” as Matthew writes. They were willfully ignorant — took a test, either didn’t bother to get the results or (as I suspect) probably got the results and just didn’t like them, so they ignored them and decided to fly anyway. Just like the idiots on the flight from SFO to LIH.
Both deserve to be arrested and “quarantined” for at least 2 weeks in a nice, private jail cell.
Overall, I agree that you shouldn’t board if you have a positive covid test. Better to go back home and quarantine.
However, we are talking about a 9 year old kid. Kids under 10 are bad vectors. They generally don’t spread the virus to adults which is why it is so silly to keep preschools and elementary schools closed and even more silly to expect a 2 year old to wear a mask in public. I thought we believe in science…
Kudos to my home state of Maryland. The entire DMV area has been “on it” from day one regarding Covid. Before and after every trip I am able to test for free, with no symptoms and no appointment. Our drive through centers are in virtually every community. The longest wait in line, in my car, was 10 minutes. Results are given usually in 24 hours (as you saw with these two people). You receive not only a call after your results are in but an email link to the labQuest chart results. Given all of this I have tested over 20 times here since late summer with no effort at all.
If every state did it like MD/VA/DC this country would be in far better shape. Testing should be quick, efficient, and easy for people to do whenever they want.
Agreed. Meanwhile, 4-5 hour waits at government testing centers in LA.
You went to the wrong testing center. Many testing centers in LA county have short waits.
I just go down the street to the private place and the insurance pays for it. Points bloggers hate lines. 😉
Even as a citizen of a science denying Red State, I can go online right now and schedule a drive-through appointment at one of many testing centers in the DFW area, with little wait once I get there. What’s rotten in Denmark, exactly?
What exactly is your point? Our Governor is Republican in Maryland.
I think I live in the same science denying red state (just about 200 mi down I-35 from you), and I agree that scheduling the test is easy, but the results still aren’t that quick. It took me 5 days to get results from a test I took back in mid November.
How do you think the Wicomico County Health Department was aware that the pair was about to travel by air? This is usually not something that would be discussed during a routine test, etc.? If I had to guess, maybe they called their home to report the positive test result, and a member of the household mentioned they were traveling?
Could be. Could also be part of a questionnaire filled out prior to the test.
Most of the counties in Maryland are similar, so I have heard. There is no questionnaire. Just provide an email address and phone number. They don’t ask any other questions as I have seen.
With that, I imagine that Boston is correct…they called the number provided and someone mentioned that the person was not able to take the call and about to depart on a flight. The phone calls are a bit random. Sometimes they come before your email, sometimes after. The people though are usually very thorough who call and go through a very professional procedure in assuring all information is conveyed.
This is why I don’t take COVID tests.
While I wholeheartedly support testing before travel, this illustrates exactly the risk you take even with testing. Luckily, they found out about the positive result before they boarded the plane, so they could turn around and go home. The two times I’ve tested before travel, I’ve also gotten results back in plenty of time, so if they came back positive, we’d just stay at home. But what would have happened if the results came back even a few hours later? This family would be in quarantine in PR at their own expense, AND now you have a plane full of people and anyone you came in contact with at the airports potentially exposed. Big risk and I don’t think people generally understand what they’re potentially getting into.
“… with proper face coverings, IF THEY HAD NEVER TAKEN OFF THEIR FACE COVERINGS TO EAT, DRINK, OR USE THE BATHROOM, the two would have been a limited threat onboard.”
Two words: Wanton indifference.
Taking a test does not absolve them of the public health responsibility to act appropriately on the results.