US airport screening?

[BrexpatInSwitzerland]

Am I the only one who thinks this is batshit insane, to put it mildly?

Work colleague has shared some pictures from O'Hare, which he got from his GF (whose company, unlike mine, has not implemented any WFH policy):

So, people are, literally, being hoarded together in large crowds as new screening procedures are being implemented.

Am I the only one who thinks this seems like insanity central at its worst? Surely it's no use to bloody screen people if you're going to cram them together in order to make it happen?

ETA: see www.washingtonpost.com for publicly available pictures ...

The authorities have issued a federal edict saying all incoming passengers must be screened, without giving the airports adequate warning.

Most of the flights are now coming through just a few airports, so it has become chaotic there.

They need to redistribute their staff ASAP to be working on screening. The airports have been fairly empty recently so you'd have thought there would be plenty of spare staff to do so.

My DD flies through O'Hare today and my heart sank when I saw the photos. She's flying domestic so hopefully will not get caught up in it.

I do think this is the sort of thing that anyone planning on going on holiday in the current pandemic should be prepared for though.

Imagine being in that with toddlers? I'm just astonished people are still thinking about voluntarily flying to other countries to go on holiday.

I'm just astonished at the breathtaking ineptitude of it all, really.

I mean, surely this was entirely predictable? It's not as though it's unknown how many passengers are going to be on a flight roughly. Or how many flights you have scheduled at your airport.

I'm a bit shocked at how horribly poor the planning seems to have been - even with minimum notice.

Not particularly shocked at the Trump administration's ineptitude, of course. They've form for that sort of thing. But, I mean, seriously?

I mean, surely this was entirely predictable? It's not as though it's unknown how many passengers are going to be on a flight roughly. Or how many flights you have scheduled at your airport.

Not really, no. Flight patterns are constantly changing at the moment.

Trump hinted yesterday that he might start to limit or ban domestic flights. Right now the flights are almost all nearly empty but the moment he actually starts limiting/banning flights they will be jam packed, and suddenly it will be chaos again.

It was chaos in European airports last Friday night for the same reason.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/chaos-at-european-airports-on-eve-of-trumps-travel-ban/2020/03/13/28ba7ef0-653e-11ea-845d-e35b0234b136_story.html

DD was actually supposed to fly home next Wed (she's at college in Chicago) but I moved her flight forward today because we just don't know what flights will be available on Wednesday - there might be none by then. How do you plan around that?