Yaw, Pitch, and RollQuarantine and Isolation at United States Airports

摘要

We share the genuine concern over the fact that our borders are not impervious to infectious disease, in spite of the best efforts of the CDC and DHHS and its components. Unless draconian health screening techniques are routinely implemented at each port of entry as a standard operating procedure for the millions of people crossing the border, there will always be opportunities for people who are ill to cross our borders undetected.1The airport is the central hub of modern transportation in the United States. It lies at the crossroads of a complex web of transportation regulation involving international and domestic concerns. At the domestic level, there are different hierarchies of government with varying isolation and quarantine authorities, so the challenges of isolation and quarantine in the airport setting reflect a broad and distinctive maze of health and transportation laws and intersecting jurisdictions. The case of an international traveler in 2007 exemplifies this maze.