The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that it plans to increase surveillance at some airports to track diseases.
The CDC will use its “Genomic Surveillance program” to track viruses and other infectious diseases at airports including Boston’s Logan International, Virginia’s Dulles International, New York’s John F. Kennedy International, and California’s San Francisco International.
“Participants answer a short survey, which provides a rich meta-data to accompany these samples and inform public health decision making. Nasal samples can be transferred to CDC laboratories for further testing,” the agency’s website says.
The CDC claims the program is “voluntary” and that the samples collected from arriving international travelers are anonymous.
As of October, over 370,000 travelers have agreed to participate in the program.
The program allegedly provides “early detection of flu, RSV, and select other respiratory viruses, in addition to SARS-CoV-2.”
The CDC reported that Ginkgo Bioworks and XpresCheck will implement the program and positive results will be uploaded to public databases and shared with health officials and lawmakers.
“With air travel exceeding pre-pandemic levels and the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and other viruses, it is crucial that we continue to test,” XpresCheck CEO Ezra Ernst said. “The data that we collect provides crucial insights for public health officials to inform how best to protect our nation from the threat of evolving viruses. We thank the volunteers who elect to swab their noses in service to our national security and public health.”
From The Blaze:
Dr. Cindy Friedman, chief of CDC's Travelers' Health Branch, stated, "The expansion of the Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program to flu, RSV, and other pathogens is essential as we head into fall respiratory season. The TGS program, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, acted as an early warning system to detect new and rare variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and will do the same for other respiratory viruses going forward."
