Health Screens At Airport

[lor]

Just arrived back in Thailand a few days ago and saw the new Flu screening process.

All visitors had to file single file past a thermal imaging camera. This must be to find people with high temperature. Shame no one was looking at the camera monitor!

Next everyone had to fill in a form and pass single file past a nice looking Thai lady who took the form, checked it and then allowed you to pass. I watched for a time and then saw the lady throw all the completed forms into a huge box. I went and looked into the box and saw what must have been thousands of forms, all mixed up. Either they had lots of people to try and sort them out later or they were burned.

Just for fun and to test my suspicions I filled in the form. All the usual questions were there such as passport number, flight & visa number etc but then tick boxes concerning your health. I ticked all the boxes saying, I had a headache, I felt sick, I had a temperature, I had flu like symptoms etc etc. I then got into line and handed it to the smiling Thai lady. She took my form, acted as if she was reading it, then said "Thank you Sir" and told me to carry on!

Just like Thailand, as I thought, it was all for show. Thailand loves to pretend to be doing things when the reality is they do nothing. But apart from causing huge delays I am sure every one felt better knowing their health was in such good hands!

Chris

[bubba]

And I arrived the other night and observed some very long queues at the so-called health inspection station before the immigration booths. But I am able to use the Fast Track "VIP" immigration area and there was not a scanner to be found there. I suppose VIPs don't get sick.

[geriatrickid]

Just for fun and to test my suspicions I filled in the form. All the usual questions were there such as passport number, flight & visa number etc but then tick boxes concerning your health. I ticked all the boxes saying, I had a headache, I felt sick, I had a temperature, I had flu like symptoms etc etc. I then got into line and handed it to the smiling Thai lady. She took my form, acted as if she was reading it, then said "Thank you Sir" and told me to carry on!

And just suppose, someone does look at the forms later on and they say whoa, this guy is Typhoid Mary and they go out in search of you. They locate you and drag you down for quarantine. Is it worth the risk of hassle? One thing I do know is that certain flights are being monitored and PAX are getting taken away for additional screening. You didn't mention your flight routing. Ask some of the arrivals from LAX what they have gone through.

[IMA_FARANG]

Just arrived back in Thailand a few days ago and saw the new Flu screening process.

All visitors had to file single file past a thermal imaging camera. This must be to find people with high temperature. Shame no one was looking at the camera monitor!

Next everyone had to fill in a form and pass single file past a nice looking Thai lady who took the form, checked it and then allowed you to pass. I watched for a time and then saw the lady throw all the completed forms into a huge box. I went and looked into the box and saw what must have been thousands of forms, all mixed up. Either they had lots of people to try and sort them out later or they were burned.

Just for fun and to test my suspicions I filled in the form. All the usual questions were there such as passport number, flight & visa number etc but then tick boxes concerning your health. I ticked all the boxes saying, I had a headache, I felt sick, I had a temperature, I had flu like symptoms etc etc. I then got into line and handed it to the smiling Thai lady. She took my form, acted as if she was reading it, then said "Thank you Sir" and told me to carry on!

Just like Thailand, as I thought, it was all for show. Thailand loves to pretend to be doing things when the reality is they do nothing. But apart from causing huge delays I am sure every one felt better knowing their health was in such good hands!

Chris

It's really all rather meaniless anyhow.

First of all swine flu is already present in Thailand. Secondly, the screening of passengers on airlines arriving in an airport is mostly nonsense, because passengers can be exposed during travel, and not show any symptoms for the incubation period. They are still infectious, but they show no symptoms. It gives a good feeling to the public, because "something is being done" to prevent them from disease. But it is only symbolic, anyhow.

It just gives everybody "happy vibes".

[bubba]

Just arrived back in Thailand a few days ago and saw the new Flu screening process.

All visitors had to file single file past a thermal imaging camera. This must be to find people with high temperature. Shame no one was looking at the camera monitor!

Next everyone had to fill in a form and pass single file past a nice looking Thai lady who took the form, checked it and then allowed you to pass. I watched for a time and then saw the lady throw all the completed forms into a huge box. I went and looked into the box and saw what must have been thousands of forms, all mixed up. Either they had lots of people to try and sort them out later or they were burned.

Just for fun and to test my suspicions I filled in the form. All the usual questions were there such as passport number, flight & visa number etc but then tick boxes concerning your health. I ticked all the boxes saying, I had a headache, I felt sick, I had a temperature, I had flu like symptoms etc etc. I then got into line and handed it to the smiling Thai lady. She took my form, acted as if she was reading it, then said "Thank you Sir" and told me to carry on!

Just like Thailand, as I thought, it was all for show. Thailand loves to pretend to be doing things when the reality is they do nothing. But apart from causing huge delays I am sure every one felt better knowing their health was in such good hands!

Chris

It's really all rather meaniless anyhow.

First of all swine flu is already present in Thailand. Secondly, the screening of passengers on airlines arriving in an airport is mostly nonsense, because passengers can be exposed during travel, and not show any symptoms for the incubation period. They are still infectious, but they show no symptoms. It gives a good feeling to the public, because "something is being done" to prevent them from disease. But it is only symbolic, anyhow.

It just gives everybody "happy vibes".

Even more meaningless than that is the fact that WHO have estimated the fatality rate of H1N1 as 0.4% of the people who became infected. And every one of those fatalities has been either an infant, very old, or had serious pre-existing health problems of the sort where the common cold could have lead to a fatal infection. Even the usual annual flu outbreaks have been strains that often had higher fatality rates.

I don't see any safety, competence or sobriety screening of taxi or bus drivers at the airport, and they are probably just as likely, if not more likely to lead you to some sort of bodily harm or fatality than H1N1.

I propose renaming H1N1 from swine flu to SLOPS:

Severe Lack Of Perspective Syndrome

[hawker9000]

And just suppose, someone does look at the forms later on and they say whoa, this guy is Typhoid Mary and they go out in search of you. They locate you and drag you down for quarantine. Is it worth the risk of hassle? One thing I do know is that certain flights are being monitored and PAX are getting taken away for additional screening. You didn't mention your flight routing. Ask some of the arrivals from LAX what they have gone through.

Any details about this? I'm flying from LAX to BKK at the end of the month. Just what I need, an extra inspection after a 20 hour flight...

I don't imagine it can be much worse than the inspections at Narita I went through a little over a month ago. All the flights arriving from the states were being accorded this privilege. All the passengers filled out forms, and then a medical team, all suited up & wearing gas masks, came onboard with the temperature gun. Every form was examined, and everybody was individually interviewed about their forms (maybe a minute per), and then handed a yellow "clearance form" and a surgical mask (sort of like a party favor...). And of course everybody was "gunned". 'Took about 45 mins or so to go through the entire 747. I can imagine a variation on this where they deplane everyone to a room in the terminal somewhere to go through all this, but I'll bet the outcome and the time expended would end up about the same. Not a "real" big deal - unless you have a connection without much leeway (then you're probably screwed) - or you actually have a fever ('not sure I want to even think about that)...

I'll say this - the whole flight over was remarkably free of the usual body odor, coughing, hacking and sneezing... It's also one of the first trans-Pac flights I've made in many years where I didn't catch some kind of cold or flu bug on the plane.

[phetaroi]

I don't imagine it can be much worse than the inspections at Narita I went through a little over a month ago. All the flights arriving from the states were being accorded this privilege. All the passengers filled out forms, and then a medical team, all suited up & wearing gas masks, came onboard with the temperature gun. Every form was examined, and everybody was individually interviewed about their forms (maybe a minute per), and then handed a yellow "clearance form" and a surgical mask (sort of like a party favor...). And of course everybody was "gunned". 'Took about 45 mins or so to go through the entire 747. I can imagine a variation on this where they deplane everyone to a room in the terminal somewhere to go through all this, but I'll bet the outcome and the time expended would end up about the same. Not a "real" big deal - unless you have a connection without much leeway (then you're probably screwed) - or you actually have a fever ('not sure I want to even think about that)...

I'll say this - the whole flight over was remarkably free of the usual body odor, coughing, hacking and sneezing... It's also one of the first trans-Pac flights I've made in many years where I didn't catch some kind of cold or flu bug on the plane.

Rather typical of the Japanese (in terms of obsession) and Narita (in terms of inconvenience).

I remember one time I was required to dismantle the lens from my SLR...despite the fact that I was on an inbound flight so had already gone through one security screening!

[autonomous_unit]

I flew United from LAX to BKK a few weeks ago and did not experience any significant delay. We had to sit on the plane for at most 5 or 10 minutes at the arrival gate in Narita while some ground personnel with face masks walked briskly through the plane visually inspecting people. As a transit passenger, I did not need any medical clearance form.

At BKK, I experienced the exact procedure described in this thread (walk past thermal scanner, hand in medical form to be binned immediately) as I still got through immigration well before my checked bag came out on the carousel (also as usual).

[Crossy]

Arrived BBK this morning, thermal camera is still there (with a cutie watching the screen) but no forms.

[asia_pilot]

Arrived BBK this morning, thermal camera is still there (with a cutie watching the screen) but no forms.

At least someone is watching the screen. Flew back from Phuket to BKK 2 month ago and saw the security girl, which were screening the bags on the entrance ( make sense as I can put everything in the bag behind the screening ) , playing on her cellphone. To bad I didnt had a camera handy. Would have made the ICAO interested.