Travel in the Era of COVID-19

Wow, what a weird time. It didn’t seem right to do another post about travel without discussing COVID-19. It wasn’t until 2 weeks ago that the government finally came out and said we should honestly be worried and take measures to protect ourselves. It feels a bit like living in a zombie apocalypse movie or probably more relevant, the movie Contagion or even Jaws- where the shark almost closes the beach but to save the town’s economy its kept open until a few more people die.

In February 2019, we were lucky enough to travel to Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. At that time I thought it was a little quirky that people wore masks on public transportation. Asians have ingrained self-protection habits from the trauma of living through SARS. (Above is a picture from the metro in Thailand). I wonder if this is what future mass transit will look like in the United States.

We were first introduced to COVID-19 in late January 2020, when we were asked by Customs officials in Barbados if we had traveled recently to China as there were travel restrictions due to a new Corona virus that was spreading. On the beach in Bequia, a waiter at Jack’s Bar didn’t want to serve us if we had recently been to China. We laughed at that and he started discussing with us that “he had done “his research” and he had a theory that the Chinese government had conspired to create the virus as a weapon against the world”. (The micro-country of St Vincent and the Grenadines now has its first COVID-19 case). When we returned to the US, we were asked if we had traveled recently to China or Italy. Later in February, when I had a doctor’s check-up, I had to answer if I had traveled anywhere internationally. On February 28, President Trump called Corona virus “a Democratic hoax”. We flew to North Carolina that day to attend my nephew’s wedding.

My nephew and his new bride flew to Europe for their honeymoon and slowly country-by- country, Europeans shut down restaurants and then their borders. On March 9, the president stated that COVID-19 was indeed serious. Then on March 13, just 8 days ago, President Trump shifted to declaring a national emergency. People wouldn’t be allowed to fly to the United States from Europe unless they were returning US citizens. My sister called me asking for help finding my nephew a flight back home. He had tickets to fly out of Paris, but France shut their border and their Parisian honeymoon hotel cancelled their last 5 days. He had to fly home from Prague, but could only land in an approved US airport, not in his hometown airport. When his plane landed in Atlanta, a health screener entered the plane and had them complete questionnaires and let them off the airplane without even checking their temperature.

Our family mostly works in health care so you would think our jobs would be pretty safe, however my husband had to cancel his clinic which comprises half his work. He has to be prepared to serve in other areas if needed (anyone want to be intubated by a psychiatrist)? My son and his fellow residents in Dermatology at the University of Iowa are now going to wear hand-sewn masks from home to protect themselves and the numerous clinic patients they see every day. The hospital is experiencing a shortage of masks so it can’t provide the derm residents with any. My daughter, who is a nurse in the University of Iowa Hospital surgical/neuro intensive care, now has COVID-19 patients in two of her unit’s four special negative pressure isolation rooms. The nurses are also being told to conserve masks by re-wearing the same one all day long.

Social distancing and shelter-in-place seem to be over reacting until you understand science and the way viral infections can double every 4 days and become exponentially out of control. Keeping the ICU’s from being overcrowded benefits everyone who ends up in a car accident or needing any form of critical care. Whatever we do now, will help decrease the infection rate two weeks from now.

Who knows where this will go and what changes we will have to make as a country. 9/11 brought the change of enhanced security screening by TSA agents. I think there is a good chance we will see people more regularly wearing masks on public transport and enduring health or temperature checks when we exit planes. There could be long lasting travel restrictions, possibly to or from countries who have not been certified “Corona-free”, at least until there’s a vaccine available. I especially feel for our younger generation with their loss of jobs and the heart ache of cancelling important life milestones like graduations and weddings. I am worried I’ll have to cancel my planned Greece/Italy trip with friends in September/October. I do love traveling, but I love staying alive more and I care about the health of our community. Please listen to our expert doctors and scientists. I hope we all can stay safe, protect our health workers and elderly, minimize the spread and flatten the infection curve of COVID-19 by not traveling. We have a personal responsibility to save lives by staying home and not overwhelming our hospitals!