(Reuters) – As coronavirus cases exploded across the world, federal medical workers tasked with screening incoming passengers at U.S. airports grew alarmed: Many were working without the most effective masks to protect them from getting sick themselves.
FILE PHOTO: People load personal protective equipment and other supplies into a back side entrance of the Life Care Center of Kirkland, the long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, in Kirkland, Washington, U.S. March 7, 2020. REUTERS/David Ryder/File Photo
Screeners with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked their supervisors this week to change official protocols and require stronger masks, according to an internal document reviewed by Reuters. On Friday evening, they learned their worst fears were realized: Two screeners, both working at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), had tested positive for the virus.
“Sad news,” a senior quarantine official at the CDC wrote in an email Friday evening to colleagues about the two workers. The email, reviewed by Reuters and not previously reported, said the two screeners will be quarantined until March 17. “Let us keep our colleagues at LAX in our thoughts.”
The news was not surprising to some CDC screeners.
“It was bound to happen,” said a veteran CDC medical official involved with screening who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They are assuring us we are safe. If we were safe, screeners would not be getting sick.”
The struggles within the CDC, an agency that advises the country’s health systems about how to protect against the virus, underscore the difficulties confronting health workers across the country and illustrate a challenge for the Trump administration, which has faced criticism over its response to the outbreak.
Trump on Feb. 26 described the risk from coronavirus as “very low.” Cases, however, have now been reported in more than half of the 50 U.S. states and 19 people have died.
Around the country, doctors, nurses, emergency responders and government health workers say they are increasingly concerned at what they see as inadequate protections and preparation for workers in the trenches. Many complain of poor training and communication in the workplace as well as insufficient equipment and staffing.
CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said the airport medical screeners receive the protective gear they need, depending on their roles.
The CDC recommends that so-called “secondary screeners,” who meet with passengers who have traveled to certain countries, such as China, wear a surgical mask, gloves and eye protection, Nordlund said. Secondary screeners are advised to stand six feet away from passengers they observe and do not wear the sturdier N95 masks, also known as respirators, because they aren’t exposed to symptomatic travelers, she said.
N95 masks are designed to prote