WASHINGTON – U.S. authorities have discouraged
immigration inspectors from wearing masks as they
process Asian passengers arriving at the nation’s
international airports from SARS hot spots such as
Hong Kong and Beijing, according to an internal
Justice Department memo obtained by WorldNetDaily.
Reason: They don’t want to panic foreign visitors into
thinking America is “disease central,” as one
official put it – even though many of those
passengers themselves are wearing masks, which help
prevent the spread of the deadly new flu bug.
“CDC [Centers for Disease Control] does not recommend
the routine use of equipment, such as N-95
respirators,” said the Justice memo sent April 25 to Bureau of
Customs and Border Protection port directors and
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
directors.
The 2-page memo advises immigration officers to limit
the use of such masks. “Personnel should wear surgical
masks when in close contact with a person who is
suspected of having SARS,” it said (emphasis in
original).
A spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection, or CBP, explains that while N-95 masks are
available for inspectors to wear, their routine use is
frowned upon because of the negative image it may
convey to passengers entering the U.S. from foreign
countries.
“A lot of people sort of thought, well, if we’ve got
all of our people running around in surgical gloves
and masks, how’s that going to affect the people
coming into the country when they see us for the first
time, and it looks like it’s disease central?” said CBP
spokesman Bill Anthony.
A CBP supervisor at one of the nation’s busiest
airports scoffed at the notion foreign travelers would
be offended at the sight of mask-wearing U.S.
inspectors.
“We were told, you know, be careful about wearing masks, [that] you don’t want to alarm people,” he said. “But, like, half the passengers on flights from
Beijing or the Orient have masks on.”
Anthony points out that CDC personnel also are not
wearing masks, as they board flights from SARS hot
spots to hand out yellow pamphlets warning about SARS.
Yet the same Justice memo, written under the subject
line, “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),”
warns port directors that SARS may be spread “through
the air.”
“Potential ways in which SARS can be spread include
touching the skin of other persons or objects that are
contaminated with infectious droplets and then
touching the eyes, nose or mouth. This can happen when
someone who is sick with SARS coughs or sneezes
droplets onto themselves, other persons, or nearby
surfaces,” the memo states. “It is also possible that
SARS can be spread more broadly through the air or by
other ways that are currently not known.”
At Los Angeles International Airport, which gets the
most traffic from SARS hot spots, inspectors complain
they recently got a memo from the deputy port
director barring them from wearing masks while in
uniform.
“We are allowed to wear surgical gloves and to use
personal fans” to circulate the air in their areas,
one LAX inspector said. “But we are not allowed to
wear the mask in uniform.”
Inspectors are the first people visitors from
SARS hot spots come in contact with as they enter the
U.S. And they say there is more contact – and
potential for germ-spreading – than most know.
“We’re touching hands all day long. If we want to wear
masks because people are hacking, we should be able
to,” said one inspector.
“You know how many times I’ve had a passport given to
me straight from the person’s mouth, because they’re
holding it with their mouth?” he added. “You know, I
tell them, ‘You mind wiping that off before you give
it to me?'”
Anthony insisted that any inspector who “comes up (to
his supervisor) and says, ‘Look, I’m uncomfortable
doing this Chinese flight from Beijing,’ can get a
mask.”
“They have that option,” he added.
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Justice issues rules for handling SARS detainees
Inspectors can’t detain suspected SARS passengers
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SARS epidemic ‘China’s Chernobyl’
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