Traveling during COVID-19 pandemic ‘an opportunity to set a new normal’
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As the COVID-19 pandemic heightens concerns regarding national and international travel, Trish Perl, MD, MSc, sees a chance for Americans to change their behaviors.
“We need to think about this as an opportunity to set a new normal,” Perl said during a virtual press conference hosted by the Infectious Disease Society of America.
“This is very much like what happened after 9/11 where all of a sudden we started seeing screening in airports,” said Perl, an IDSA fellow and chief of the division of infectious diseases at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “We thought it was the end of the world and it absolutely wasn’t. We just needed to learn how to adapt.”
The “new normal,” Perl said, involves travelers and the travel industry recognizing ways they can keep travelers safe by wearing masks, screening employees, paying more attention to cleaning and disinfection practices and ensuring appropriate physical distancing.
At a personal level, travelers should avoid traveling while sick, consider driving instead of flying or taking public transportation, pick destinations with a low prevalence of infections and choose outdoor activities, Perl said. She stressed the importance of avoiding crowded indoor spaces, carrying antiseptic wipes and practicing good hand hygiene.
The conference, moderated by Amanda Jezek, IDSA senior vice president of public policy and government relations, addressed topics including risk for transmission on public transportation and policies being implemented by airlines to mitigate spread of the novel coronavirus.
Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of public affairs and policy for the U.S. Travel Association, noted the importance of reopening in a “gradual, phased and regional” manner to ensure a safe return to travel.
In the absence of health and safety measures, “there simply can be no travel,” she said.
"It is very clear that a true economic reopening cannot happen until good health practices become universal — starting first and foremost with wearing of masks," Barnes said.
She said public and travel agencies should prioritize the limiting of crowding in public spaces, offering touchless solutions for payments and identification, improving sanitation, encouraging health screenings for customers and workers, and changing food preparation and creating new procedures if an employee tests positive for COVID-19.
Testing regimens will be critical to travel reopening, Barnes said, noting that a healthy travel experience “is a shared responsibility.”
The speakers also discussed enforcement and implementation of new airline procedures.
“Travelers want clear communication about what these best practices are, so our travel businesses are focused on getting that word out and communicating it proactively,” Barnes said.
She noted a divide among Americans about what is necessary to prevent spread of the coronavirus.
“It has become political in some areas, but for the greater good of the U.S. economy and our country, we are encouraging folks to follow the CDC guidance and wear masks,” Barnes said.
Perl said enforcement of such health and safety practices “via the market” may be possible if travel agencies implement necessary measures.
“I think it is incumbent on all of us and the public to insist on this as part of what we expect to make sure we can do this safely,” Perl said.
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