The Washington Post - 27.03.2020

A20 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020

the coronavirus pandemic

BY IAN DUNCAN

AND LORI ARATANI

Even as the Ebola outbreak still
raged in West A frica, congressional
watchdogs began investigating
how well-prepared U.S. airports
and airlines were to deal with a
rapidly spreading disease.
They found a patchwork of local
plans and federal agencies point-
ing fingers at o ne another over who
was responsible for knitting them
together. The investigators, from
the Government Accountability
Office, said the country needed one
national plan — something that
was required under U.N. aviation
standards.
The Transportation Depart-
ment and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention agreed
that such a plan was a good idea,
but each said the other ought to be
in charge of developing it.
Five years later, as the novel
coronavirus takes hold in the Unit-
ed States, those disputes have been
left largely unresolved, and oppor-
tunities to be better prepared for
an outbreak were missed.
The airline and travel indus-
tries, now brought to their knees by
the outbreak and seeking a $50 bil-
lion government rescue, opposed
efforts by the CDC to set new rules
for tracing infected passengers,
calling them “burdensome.”
And as the coronavirus has
swept through the aviation system,
front-line workers like those who
clean airplanes, Transportation Se-
curity Administration officers and
customs agents say they are ex-
posed to danger, lacking clear
guidance and training from their
bosses. Travelers, meanwhile, have
reported inconsistencies in the
way they are being screened for
illness when they come into the
country.
In a 2015 report on its findings,
the GAO recommended that the
Transportation Department step
up and craft the plan, but it has
resisted. Even as the coronavirus
outbreak began, the Transporta-

tion Department said that the De-

partment of Health and Human

Services and the Department of

Homeland Security needed to step

in, said Heather Krause, a GAO

official.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.),

chairman of the aviation subcom-

mittee, said he requested the GAO

review because there seemed to be

no clear policy on how to contain

Ebola, and he wanted to make sure

the nation would be better pre-

pared for the next outbreak.

In a n interview, L arsen said that

the aviation system’s response

hadn’t been a disaster but that it

could still have been better pre-

pared.

That was before the rollout of

travel restrictions on European

countries earlier this month led to

overwhelming crowds and hours-

long waits at some airports as

Americans rushed home. Larsen

posted a tweet revising his view.

“Last week I told a reporter that

the US govt preparation efforts in

airports for COVID-19 wasn’t a di-

saster but we could do better. I now

want to amend that response: it’s a

disaster,” he tweeted.

A House bill to deal with the

coronavirus pandemic, unveiled

this week, includes a provision that

would require the Transportation

Department to take the lead on

developing a plan in the future.

‘Did we not learn anything ...?’

In a response to the GAO report,

the Transportation Department

said any such plan should be part

of a “broader national communica-

ble disease planning effort that is

not limited to the aviation sector.”

It reiterated that position in a

response this month to questions

from The Washington Post about

the absence of a national aviation

plan for dealing with communica-

ble diseases.

In outlining the actions it has

taken as the coronavirus outbreak

has spread, the Transportation De-

partment focused on the Federal

Aviation Administration’s role as a

liaison between industry and vari-

ous government agencies.

“When there are concerns relat-

ing to communicable disease, FAA,

as appropriate, hosts and coordi-

nates calls between airlines, avia-

tion associations, HHS/CDC, [the

Occupational Safety and Health

Administration], and DHS that in-

clude preparedness measures,” the

department said in a statement.

The lack of a plan has drawn

scrutiny from Democrats on Capi-

tol Hill in recent weeks.

“Did we not learn anything

about processes and procedures

from those previous diseases?”

Sen. Ta mmy Duckworth (D-Ill.)

asked officials at a recent hearing.

The inability to pull together a

national plan follows a common

pattern, experts say. In the months

and years after an outbreak or

tragedy, recommendations flow.

Gaps are identified, and actions

are recommended. But officials

do n’t always follow through.

Vicki Bier, director of the Center

for Human Performance and Risk

Analysis at the University of Wis-

consin at Madison, said such sce-

narios are common, not just in

government, but in virtually all

industries and organizations.

“Reacting in the short term and

then forgetting in the long term to

close the loop and act on their plan

is a very widespread problem,” s aid

Bier, who has a background in

pandemic preparedness.

Solving it can be difficult.

“In complicated problems like

this, yes, there needs to be some-

body who is responsible for meet-

ing deadlines — ‘ Yes, we will have a

plan for x,’ ” Bier said.

Despite the lack of a unified

plan, former government officials

say the aviation system’s defenses

have been hardened in recent

years.

Peter Houck, a former CDC

quarantine officer, said the SARS

outbreak in 2002 and 2003

spurred international aviation au-

thorities to get better prepared for

new diseases, work that he said

paid off when Ebola flared up in

West Africa in 2014.

More preparations were under-

taken in recent years, too.

On the final day of the Obama

presidency, t he CDC finalized long-

stalled rules on how to track airline

passengers who might have been

exposed to a sick person. The GAO

had urged the government to be

better prepared since 2004.

But officials at t he New York City

Department of Health and Mental

Hygiene said the rules that were

ultimately proposed weren’t strict

enough and urged the CDC to re-

quire airlines to collect more infor-

mation on passengers.

“Rather than relying on infor-

mation ‘available and already

maintained by the airline,’ the reg-

ulations should mandate that air-

lines collect and maintain addi-

tional passenger data to facilitate

contact tracing,” the department

wrote in a formal submission to the

CDC in October 2016. “For exam-

ple, the contact information col-

lected, particularly in the case of

domestic flights, is not sufficient

for contact tracing.”

But the travel industry balked at

the proposed rules, saying they

would be expensive and burden-

some to follow. A host of lobbying

groups, including Airlines for

America, wrote in their submis-

sion to the CDC that the rules

would be “cost prohibitive and op-

erationally unrealistic,” and to the

extent the rules applied to domes-

tic flights, the costs would be “vast-

ly higher.”

“Given these considerations, we

suggest that the [proposal] be

withdrawn,” the groups wrote.

The CDC pressed ahead, but it

discovered when the coronavirus

outbreak began that it was having

difficulty tracking passengers even

under the rules established in 2017.

In February, it issued emergency

rules along the lines of those pro-

posed by the New York officials,

saying that airlines were best posi-

tioned to collect the necessary in-

formation.

Airlines again pushed back, say-

ing it could take a year or longer to

develop a system for reliably col-

lecting the information and that

government agencies, including

the DHS and the State Depart-

ment, were better positioned to

provide the information sought by

federal health officials.

Katherine Estep, a spokeswom-

an for Airlines for America, the

industry’s main trade group, did

not respond to questions about

whether airlines should have been

more willing to help, saying only

that the industry was doing what it

could to pitch in.

“Since the first reports of coro-

navirus, we have been working

closely with multiple federal agen-

cies to help contain and prevent

the spread of the virus,” Estep said.

“We fully support expedited con-

tact tracing and have put forward

pragmatic solutions to assist in

achieving the U.S. government’s

objective of obtaining complete,

accurate and verifiable passenger

data.”

But airlines wanted no part of

sharing passenger information.

Under pressure to find a solution,

Airlines for America said it would

pay to develop a website and app

that would allow travelers to sub-

mit their own information — in-

cluding two phone numbers, an

email and an address while in the

United States — directly to the

CDC. Nicholas E. Calio, president

and chief executive of Airlines for

America, said the app could be up

and running within two weeks,

and the website within four.

More than two weeks after air-

lines first floated the idea, no deci-

sion has been made on whether

such a system will be used.

In the interim, federal officials

have been collecting passenger

contact data on paper forms,

Guidance over preparedness plan went unheeded

BY ERIC YODER

Numerous federal agencies
would get money to buy protec-
tive equipment, sanitize their
offices and accommodate in-
creased telework by their em-
ployees under the coronavirus
emergency spending bill ap-
proved by the Senate.
The funding follows concerns
about inadequate protections for
federal employees r anging from
lack of protective masks to inad-
equate cleaning of work spaces,
especially for those in positions
whose jobs require face-to-face
contact with the public.
The measure, which was ap-
proved unanimously, also pro-
vides money to cover expected
overtime pay for front-line em-
ployees including food inspec-
tors, federal prison correctional
officers, airport screeners and
medical personnel.

And many agencies would re-

ceive funds to beef up informa-

tion technology systems bur-

dened by the increasing number

of federal employees now tele-

working, according to a summa-

ry by the Senate Appropriations

Committee.

The Veterans Affairs Depart-

ment would get money for all

those purposes: $19.6 billion to

support “increased demand for

health care services at VA facili-

ties and through telehealth, in-

cluding the purchase of medical

equipment and supplies, testing

kits, and personal protective

equipment,” plus programs for

homeless or at-risk veterans.

Also, limits on overtime pay

would be waived.

The Department of Homeland

Security would get $178 million

for “personal protection equip-

ment for personnel including

gloves, garments, goggles, hand

sanitizer, respirators, and surgi-

cal masks” to be distributed

among its component agencies,

including the Transportation Se-

curity Administration.

Money for protective equip-

ment also would go to law en-

forcement agencies and the Bu-

reau of Prisons in the Justice

Department, medical care pro-

viders of the Defense Depart-

ment and the Public Health Ser-

vice, and the Capitol Building’s

Office of Attending Physician,

among others.

TSA also would get $100 mil-

lion for “increased cleaning and

sanitization at TSA operations at

airports and other facilities,

overtime and travel costs re-

quired to maintain operations

while infected employees are

quarantined, and additional ex-

plosive detection materials that

must be disposed of after a single

use to prevent the spread of

coronavirus.”

The General Services Admin-

istration, which owns and leases

buildings for agencies other than

the Defense Department, would

get an extra $275 million for

“deep cleaning, enhanced

screening, and unanticipated

space and space management

requirements.” Others that

would get extra money for clean-

ing and disinfecting include

parts of the Interior Department,

VA, the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency, the Forest Service,

the Smithsonian and the Kenne-

dy Center.

Additional money to boost

telework capabilities would go to

the Justice, Interior and Veterans

Affairs departments, the EPA

and to Congress itself.

The bill does not specify pre-

cise amounts for each purpose by

agency, instead providing sums

to be used for a number of listed

reasons. And unlike a bill offered

by House Democratic leadership

on Monday, the bill would not

require that agencies allow tele-

work by all employees eligible for

it.

“This legislation includes per-

sonal protective equipment mea-

sures for federal employees at

the VA, DHS, Bureau of Prisons

and the National Forest System,

who are especially vulnerable

given their public-facing and es-

sential roles,” Sen. Mark R. War-

ner (D-Va.) said in an emailed

statement. “This is an improve-

ment over the status quo, but it’s

not enough. I remain concerned

that the federal government isn’t

being flexible enough about ex-

panding telework arrangements

for employees who can.”

The House measure has been

set aside, and the House is ex-

pected to approve the Senate bill

on Friday. President Trump said

he intends to sign it immediately.

“It’s encouraging that impor-

tant protections for federal

workers are b eing added into l aw

— especially at a time when the

American people are relying on

essential government services

more than ever before,” Rep.

Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) said in

an emailed statement. “However,

ambiguous guidance and uneven

application across agencies on

common-sense steps like ex-

panded telework has been an

unforced error.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)

said that while the provisions

“are a step forward, we will keep

pushing for more. In the mean-

time, President Trump should

issue an executive order — as my

colleagues and I have called for

— to provide clear direction for

all federal agencies to maximize

telework wherever possible.”

[email protected]

Spending bill g ives agencies money for telework, equipment and c leaning

which are then input into comput-

ers by hand and sent to the CDC. At

a Senate hearing earlier this month

on the coronavirus outbreak and

its effect on aviation, Joel Szabat,

acting undersecretary for policy at

the Transportation Department,

said that the system worked, large-

ly because information was only

being collected from fewer than

1,000 incoming passengers a day,

but that it would not be scalable

should the number of passengers

grow.

However, with new screening

requirements now in place for

travelers returning from 28 coun-

tries in Europe, passenger volumes

may increase.

‘A Petri dish waiting to happen’

Weaknesses identified in the

2015 GAO report have also contin-

ued to persist, records show. GAO

investigators found that between

2012 and 2015, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration

fined several companies that hold

service contracts with airlines or

airports for not having sufficient

procedures to protect their em-

ployees from blood-borne patho-

gens. The violations involved com-

panies that did not “provide em-

ployees with appropriate patho-

gen exposure control planning,

training, vaccinations, and person-

al protective equipment.”

The companies took steps to

solve the problems, and people

interviewed by the GAO investiga-

tors said the industry had tight-

ened up in the wake of Ebola.

But in late 2019, OSHA’s records

show that it issued a fresh fine

against Eulen, a major contractor,

for violating the same rules.

The company did not address

questions about the violation, but

it shared a statement from the

chief executive of its American op-

eration, Xavi Rabell, that said: “Be-

cause the health and well-being of

our employees comes first, the

company has made sure all em-

ployees have access to prevention

information.”

Tim Maddox, a union organizer

and longtime airport employee in

Los Angeles, said some cleaning

crews there feel so unprepared

that the union was stepping in to

provide training.

“Our workers were reporting

that they were told to clean inter-

national flights, including some

coming in from China, and they

hadn’t h ad any training and equip-

ment; they were just told to clean

the plane,” Maddox said.

Leaders of the unions represent-

ing TSA and Customs and Border

Protection officers say their offi-

cers were similarly unprepared,

even though they deal with the

public and their luggage up close.

At least two dozen TSA officers

have tested positive for the virus.

“The checkpoints are a Petri

dish waiting to happen in a bad

way,” s aid a TSA official, who spoke

on the condition of anonymity be-

cause he was not authorized to

speak publicly.

The agency says it has increased

cleaning at checkpoints and is al-

lowing travelers to request that

officers put on a new pair of gloves

when screening them.

Bier said solving the planning

problem is more complex than just

naming a point person because

agencies have different priorities

they think are not well understood

by those outside their operations.

“A s a society, we have these very

complex interacting systems that

have outgrown our ability to man-

age them,” she added. “A nd so we

compartmentalize — but there are

some things that don’t get done

well that way. And unfortunately

there isn’t a good solution to that.”

Keeping airports and the avia-

tion system safe relies on a stew of

government agencies scattered

across the Transportation Depart-

ment, Labor Department, HHS

and DHS. The GAO investigators

uncovered examples of bickering

between them dating back years,

finding that in 2010, the Transpor-

tation Department asked the CDC

to help more airports develop dis-

ease response plans.

“The request did not specify

which airports to extend CDC’s

outreach, in part because, at that

time, CDC was resistant to any

expansion,” according to the GAO

report.

Good leadership is critical, said

Howard Kunreuther, co-director of

the Risk Management and Deci-

sion Processes Center at the Whar-

ton School of the University of

Pennsylvania.

“You cannot deal with this at t he

level of just saying let each agency

operate,” h e said. “You need to have

some way to bring them together

and to indicate that this is a prob-

lem, which cannot be solved by one

agency alone. That is something

that leadership is going to have to

suggest — ‘This is the way to do it’

— and we don’t have that right

now.”

A guide for airports published

last year by the Transportation Re-

search Board, an arm of the Na-

tional Academies of Sciences, En-

gineering, and Medicine, under-

scores why planning is important.

Airports need to know which am-

bulance services and hospitals

stand ready to receive infectious

patients and be ready for a “high

percentage of employee absences,

even among essential employees.”

In t he case of the novel coronavi-

rus, the emphasis quickly shifted

from tracking sick passengers to

ensuring airports can stay open as

TSA officers and air traffic control

workers fall ill, as well as guaran-

teeing the financial health of the

airlines.

Stephanie Murphy, a former

emergency management official at

the Metropolitan Washington Air-

ports Authority, said that airports

now are generally in a good posi-

tion to handle sick passengers but

that planning for how to keep oper-

ations going with large numbers of

absences has lagged at s ome small-

er airports.

Murphy, now a consultant, has

been working during the coronavi-

rus outbreak to help airports en-

sure they can stay open.

“The beautiful piece and part is

that we are having these conversa-

tions,” she said. “That’s a positive

thing.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST

The Transportation Department and the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention agreed a national p lan t o protect the aviation industry

was a good idea, but each said the other ought to be in charge of it.

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