U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rick Larsen (D-WA), Chair of the Subcommittee on aviation, want the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) to perform a series of studies that would look at the safety of air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter to the GAO dated Nov. 24, the two committee chairs asked the agency to conduct three studies one looking at what the risks are of air travel during a public health crisis, another looking at what the Federal response has been to address these risks, and a third that would identify what strategies could apply to future legislation.
“The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having profound effects on every aspect of our society… Fear and anxiety have prompted millions of people to cancel or postpone travel plans, avoid public gatherings, and curtail many of the comings and goings of everyday life. As a result, air travel has plummeted by as much as 90 percent during the pandemic compared to just a year ago, causing billions of dollars in financial losses and tens of thousands of workers to be furloughed by U.S. airlines and their contractors,” the Congressmen said in their letter. “Unfortunately, these losses do not negate the fact that air travel, more than any other mode of transportation, has the greatest potential to carry this disease from one part of the world to another. Accordingly, until a vaccine is widely available, reducing the spread of COVID-19 through air travel and revitalizing the U.S. airline industry will depend in large part on a better understanding of how diseases, particularly those that are airborne, spread through air travel…”
Specifically, the chairs are asking the GAO to review recent government, academic, and industry research on disease transmission via air travel; to identify the various roles and responsibilities of authorities at the local, state, and federal levels; to assess the aviation industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and to create a “lessons learned” report on disease mitigation strategies.
In their letter, the Congressmen pointed out that there have been five other major public health epidemics with global ramifications within the last 20 years. There have been previous recommendations to come up with a pandemic plan.
“In December 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) even published a report warning about the dangers of communicable disease transmission through air travel. The GAO found that, while the United States is a signatory to an international treaty that obligates member states to develop a national aviation preparedness plan for communicable disease outbreaks, the United States has yet to develop such a plan,” the Congressmen wrote. “The GAO recommended that the Department of Transportation work with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to develop this plan. While the DOT did not dispute the need for a plan, the Department disagreed that it should lead this effort. Sadly, this has left the Federal government without a plan in place that could have helped prepare Federal agencies, airports, and airlines for the COVID-19 pandemic. As the GAO recently reported, some aviation stakeholders have publicly noted that a lack of a coordinated response may have led to some of the confusion and chaos at certain airports that occurred earlier this year following the COVID-19 travel bans and increased screening efforts.”